REPORT ON THE HUMAN CRANIA. 
77 
cooking place, the site of a figlit which occurred about 30 years ago near Wanganui, 
north of Cook’s Straits. Three specimens were from Otago ; two, presented by Mr. 
W. Riddell, being from Chastlands Mistake, and one found in an oven at Oipopo. One 
was found in the Marlborough district of the Middle Island, and was presented by Dr. 
Philip. One presented by Mr. Lambert, was from Whangarii, to the north of Auckland. 
Three were from the neighbourhood of Auckland, whilst the localities of the remaining 
two were not known. 
Nine of the twenty-one crania were adults and presumably males, nine were adults 
and presumably females, two were children about 8 and 10, and one was apparently 
a girl about 16. 
Norma verticalis . — In both the males and females the crania were not uniform in 
appearance in each sex, for some were obviously longer and narrower than others, and 
did not dip so abruptly in the parieto-occipital region, so that their proportions were 
dolichocephalic, others were wider in the parietal region and mesaticephalic. In the 
males the sagittal line was slightly ridged, the parietal eminences as a rule were prominent, 
and the cranial vault sloped, and was flattened from the ridge to the eminences. The 
sides of the skull were almost vertical below the parietal tubera. All the skulls, with 
one exception, were phsenozygous. The Stephanie and asterionic diameters were equal 
in one specimen ; in four the Stephanie exceeded the asterionic ; in four the asterionic 
exceeded the Stephanie. In the females the sagittal line, except in three specimens, 
was not so ridge-like as in the males, and the slope from that line outwards to the 
tubera was less. All the skulls were phsenozygous. The Stephanie and asterionic 
diameters were equal in one specimen ; in three the Stephanie exceeded the asterionic ; 
in five the asterionic was greater than the Stephanie. 
Norma lateralis . — Of the male skulls four rested behind on the mastoids; two on 
the occipital condyles ; three on the conceptacula cerebelli. Of the females, three 
rested on the mastoids ; three on the condyles ; one on the conceptacula. The male crania 
were not so massive as those of the Moriori, for the heaviest male skull did not exceed 
1 lb. 15 oz. avoir., and the next in weight was 1 lb. 12f oz. The inion, glabella, and 
supraciliary ridges were prominent. The forehead was more retreating in the males than 
in the females, and in the skulls with a relatively high cephalic index the descent from 
“Tyne” during October 1861. We were driven by stress of weather under the lee of this island, which was at that time 
uninhabited except by two white men in charge of a small cattle Station. Two of the skulls (the females 1 ) were found 
with their skeletons buried under ledges of rock ; the others in a cave the descent to which was by a narrow shaft, and 
which was filled with human bones the amount of which it was quite impossible to compute. I sunk to my waist in 
them, and should have gone further if not supported, the lower strata being quite disorganised. This cave was the 
burying place of a hapu or family of the Ngatirankawa Tribe, living at Waikanai and Otaki on the mainland about 
eight miles distant. All such burying places are strictly held “ tapu,” or sacred, so that it is beyond suspicion that any 
of these could possibly be European skulls. Had there been natives on the island it would have been impossible to 
have secured these specimens. As it was, great difficulty was experienced from the superstition of the English sailors 
of the schooner. I have been given to understand by competent authorities that no white man had ever been in that 
cave before.” 
