708 
THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 
The usual colour of the natives is a black-brown, often very dark, and darker than 
that of the natives of Humboldt Bay. As is usually the case with dark races, the young 
girls and boys appear much lighter as a rule than the adults. Some one or two of 
the young women were of a quite light yellowish brown, as was also one young man, 
who came from a distance to the ship to trade. No doubt there is a mixture of blood, 
and the light coloured natives observed belonged to the light coloured race described by 
Jacobs as inhabiting the eastern part of the main island, and as constantly being made 
war upon by the dominant black race. 1 
The hair of the head, which is worn long only by the younger adult males, formed in 
them a dense mop, projecting in all directions 6 to 8 inches from the head, but appeared 
less luxuriant in growth than that of the natives of Humboldt Bay. The hair is crisp, 
glossy, and extremely elastic, and every hair rolls itself up into a spiral of small 
diameter, thus in general appearance it is fine curly, like that of Fijians. On com- 
paring it with a very small sample of hair of the natives of Humboldt Bay taken from 
several native combs, the hair of the latter proves to be somewhat coarser, but in other 
respects the two hairs are closely alike, the diameters of the spirals of the curls being the 
same. Some hair from a native of Api, New Hebrides, is of about the same coarseness 
as the Admiralty Island hair, but the curls are of much smaller diameter ; the hair of 
the Api Islanders seems to be remarkable for the fineness of its curls. The fineness of the 
curl of the hair in various Melanesian races seems to be pretty constant in each race and 
characteristic. It might be estimated by measuring the diameter of the circles formed 
by the separate spirally twisted hairs, and taking the average of several measurements. 
No doubt a certain curve of the hair follicles corresponds with and produces the curl 
in the hairs, as in the case of the hair follicles of the negro as discovered by Mr. Stewart, 2 
but the amount of curve will be peculiar to each race. The hair of both head and body 
of the Admiralty Islanders is naturally black, that of the head being of a glossy black. 
The hair of the men’s bodies was not at all abundant, nor by any means so plentiful 
as it is often seen to be on the bodies of Europeans, the hairiness of whom is apt to be 
underrated. Eyebrows were generally absent in the Admiralty Islanders, having very 
probably been shaved off ; the natives made signs when offered razors that they used 
obsidian knives for shaving. 
It was not noticed that the natives seen at Nares Harbour had excessively large 
front teeth. This fact was observed by Baron de Miklucho-Maclay 3 on his first visit, 
and he has since examined most interesting cases of macrodontism on subsequent excur- 
sions to the islands. 
The septum of the nose in all the adult males is perforated, and the lower margin of 
1 Jacobs, loc. cit., p. 176. 
2 Charles Stewart, F.L.S., Note on the Scalp of a Negro, Microscopical Journal, vol. ix. p. 64, 1873. 
3 Yerhandl. der Berlin Gesellsch. f. Anthrop., Zeitschr. f. Ethnol., Bd. viii., 1876. 
