Page:Aboriginesofvictoria01.djvu/85

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PHYSICAL CHARACTER.
5

Measurements made in the same manner of two Europeans, one an adult male and the other a young man, give the figures following, namely:—

Adult. Young man.
Ground to calf of leg (thickest part) 10¼ 10
Ground to centre of cap of knee 13 14½
Ground to fork 21½ 25¾
Ground to umbilicus 29½ 30¾
Ground to chin 43½ 43¾
Ground to tips of fingers (the hand being placed against the thigh) 19½ 19
Length of arm from point of shoulder to elbow 10¼ 10
Length of arm from elbow to tips of fingers 13 13

These measurements, few as they are, seem to show that the arms and legs of the male blacks are longer than those of Europeans. Collins relates that Capt. Paterson found up the Hawkesbury natives who appeared to him to have longer legs and arms than those of the natives of Port Jackson and the coast, due, it was suggested, to their being obliged from infancy, in order to gain a living, to climb trees, hanging by their arms and resting on their feet at the utmost stretch of the body.[1]

Mr. William Skene gives the following measurements of three blacks living at Portland Bay, who, he thinks, are rather under the sizes of some tribes[2]:—

Jemmy. Tommy. Billy.
Age 25 to 30 years 50 years (about) 25 years (about)
Height 5 ft. 7¼ in. 5ft. 6 in. 5ft. 3 in.
Rouud tbe sboulders 44 in. 41 in. *
From shoulder to palm of hand 33 in. 31 in. 29½ in.
Leg 32 in. 28½ in. 29 in.
Girth of thigh (above trousers) 19 in. 19 in. 20 in.
Girth of waist 32 in. 30½ in. 33½ in.

Color, Hair, etc.

The color of the natives of Victoria is a chocolate-brown, in some nearly answering to No. 41 of M. Broca's color-types, in others more nearly approaching No. 42; the eyes are very dark-brown (almost black), corresponding nearly to No. 1 in M. Broca's types; the "white of the eye" is in all cases yellowish, the tint being deeper in some than in others; the hair of the head is so deep a brown as to appear in many lights jet-black, and jet-black in some it is. The beard is black. The hair of the head is usually abundant, and waved or in large curls. The beard is full, and generally crisp. The brown color of the hair of the head is most often seen in that of the women and girls. The hair growing on the back of the boys and girls is very fine and soft, and in color brown (not very dark).


  1. The English Colony in New South Wales, by Lieut-Col. Collins, 1804.
  2. Report of the Select Committee of the Legislative Council, 1858-9, p. 227.