40 
THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 
transverse diameter of 119 mm. and a conjugate of 118 mm., with a brim index 
of 99; his male pelvis from Noukahiva had a transverse diameter of 108 mm. and 
a conjugate of 94 mm., with a brim index of 89. Dr. Barnard Davis has given the 
transverse diameter of the brim of a male dolichocephalic Loyalty Islander from Lifu 
(Awita) as 114 mm. and the conjugate as 106 mm., the index of which is 92; also the 
transverse diameter of a male brachy cephalic Tannese 1 as 121 mm. and the conjugate as 
110 mm., index 81. In my two New Zealand pelves the mean brim index was 96, and 
in a young Maori measured by Meyer and Tungel it was 90 - 9. 
There is therefore a wide range of variation in the relative transverse and conjugate 
diameters of the brim in the pelves of the Pacific Islanders, so that the index ranged, 
amongst the pelves measured, from 81 in a male Tannese and in a male Sandwich 
Islander to 107 in a male Loyalty Islander. This is in all probability to be accounted 
for in part at least from the fact that the series consisted of pelves, some of which 
were obtained from islands populated chiefly by the Melanesian race, others chiefly 
by the Polynesian or Mahori race, others again by a mixture of the two races. 2 
The specimens which have been measured are too few and too doubtful as to the 
race to which they belonged to enable one to state with any certainty what is the 
characteristic form of the pelvic brim in each of these two great races, or the modifica- 
tions which may arise in its form when the two races are intermingled. If one, however, 
may regard the pelves from New Caledonia as derived from the Melanesian race inhabit- 
ing that group of islands, then it would seem as if in the females the mean brim, index 
did not reach 90, so that they belonged to the platypellic group, whilst in the males 
the same index was at or about 91, so that they were mesatipellic. On the other 
hand, however, in one of the male Loyalty Islanders, also in all probability of the 
Melanesian stock, the pelvic index was, as just stated, as high as 107, and therefore very 
strongly dolichopellic, and in both the male and female Papuan pelves in the Dresden 
Museum this index was also dolichopellic (dolicholekanic). Again, if one may regard 
the male pelves from Tonga, Mangareva, Noukahiva, and New Zealand as from people 
of the Polynesian or Mahori race, then it would seem as if this race had a higher 
brim index than the Melanesians of New Caledonia, and was either dolichopellic or 
approaching that group. On the other hand, it should be remembered that the brim 
index in Verncau’s two male Sandwich Islanders and in Barnard Davis’s brachy cephalic 
Tannese was as low as 81, i.e., platypellic. 
One must still leave in doubt, therefore, the exact position of both Polynesians and 
Melanesians, but should the opinion which I have just expressed, that the male 
Melanesians are mesatipellic, be confirmed by a more extended series of observations, 
1 The length-breadth index of the skull of the Lifu Islander, Awita, is said by Dr. Barnard Davis to be 74, and 
that of the Tannese 85. 
3 For a resumd of the facts on which this statement of the distribution of the two great races of the Pacific is 
made, I may refer to the chapter on the Races of the Pacific Ocean in the First or Craniological Part of this Report. 
