Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 18.djvu/770

750 cases in Queensland and southern Australia, it may be said that Australian skulls of the same sex are alike, and that those of the interior populations differ from those of natives of the coast only in a little greater development, corresponding with their larger stature. This superiority is the result of better conditions of existence. It is enough, therefore, to describe two types: the Australian type proper, to which



most of the known tribes belong; and the Neanderthaloid type, found only among a few southern tribes, the most of which are in process of extinction.

The head which has been selected as a type of the former race is that of an individual from Port Essington. It has a cranial capacity of only 1,250 cubic centimetres, while the average of Australian skulls is 1,285 cubic centimetres, and is very dolichocephalous and hypsistenocephalous that is, is elongated from front to rear, and is higher than broad. The indices are horizontal 67·21, vertical 105·69, The prominences of the brows are voluminous, as is also the glabella, which appears to be prolonged over the forehead. The medial prominence of the forehead is quite marked, the lateral ones are nearly effaced. The parietals present an analogous disposition: their inner borders rise along the sagittal suture so as to form a kind of roof, while the bosses are hardly indicated. The curved lines on the occipital form thick and prominent puffs; the bone is flattened over the cerebellum, and presents well-defined muscular impressions. The antero-posterior curve is regular to near the lambdoidal suture, whence it rises to the