Paragraph 2.—»Skulls o f Papuas, Alfourous, and Oceanic
nations.
M. Lesson has made considerable additions to the knowledge
previously obtained o f the native races o f the Austral
countries; t His remarks on the forms of the skulk belonging
to the Papuas, the Alfourous, and the New Zealanders, are
in a great measure new. I shall translate them, as giving a
comparative idea of the shape of the head in the various
races of men above mentioned. It must be observed that
the Papuas, described by M., Lesson, are not the "genuine
race, o f that name, but the people of mixed breed, partly o f
Malayan extraction, who inhabit Waigiou and other islands
on the northern coast of New Guinea. Some skulls belonging
to this mixed race are figured on the Atlas to the voyage
of M. de Freycinet, and have been described by M. M. Quoy
and Gaimard, the companions of that dS inguished navigator.
M. Lesson collected some crania of the saiate description,
and he brought with him several genuine skulls of the
Alfoura race. He compares these with the crania of Mozambique
Negroes, and with those of New Zealanders, which
afford a specimen of the characters of the Oceanic nation.
“ The skull of the hybrid Papua,” says M. Lesson, u is remarkable
for a considerable flattening in its posterior part
which forms a square surface, with the angles rounded.s JThis
position does not make the occipito-frontal diameter much
smaller, comparatively, than the heads of Europeans, Alfourous
and Mozambiques: but this is not the case with respect
to the bi-parietal diameter, which is much larger, owing to the
more considerable developement of the parietal convexities.
The coronal, although a little larger than that of an European,
does not present differences so decided as to admit of
description. The face is likewise larger, in consequence of
the greater extent of the transversal diameter of the orbitary
cavity, and of a slight flattening of the bridge of the nose.
The opening of the nostrils is in every respect like that of an,
European : but the distance from one mastoid apophysis on