STATURE.

Height in feet and inches.Number of
Measurements.
4feet111⁄2inchesto5feet0 inches.2
5„0 „—5„1 „5
5„1 „—5„2 „6
5„2 „—5„3 „13
5„3 „—5„4 „18
5„4 „—5„5 „9
5„5 „—5„6 „10
5„6 „—5„7 „6
5„7 „—5„8 „2
5„8 „—5„81⁄2„1
Total, 72

The foregoing table includes all the measurements of height which I obtained in the various parts of the group. The range of these 72 measurements is 4 feet 111⁄2 inches to 5 feet 81⁄2 inches. Fifty of these are gathered together between 5 feet 2 inches and 5 feet 6 inches. Arranging the whole series in order, I find that the value of the central number (36th) is 5 feet 4 inches; of the quarter-points, the value of the 18th is 5 feet 3 inches, and of the 54th, 5 feet 51⁄2 inches; and the values of the 9th and 63rd in the scale are 5 feet 11⁄4 inches, and 5 feet 6 inches respectively. There is a disturbing element in this series, which is probably the result of combining in the same series the natives of the Bougainville Straits islands and those of St. Christoval, the latter being rather shorter, as noticed below. We may, however, take the value of the median as representing the average height of a native of the Solomon Islands, viz., 5 feet 4 inches, or 1·625 mètres, which is somewhat below the medium height of the human race, as stated by Topinard at 1·65 mètres. It is, however, in a marked degree in excess of the height which Mayer gives for the Papuans, viz., 1·536 mètres (vide Topinard’s Anthropology).

Deviations of a constant character are found in different parts of the group, and often in different districts of the same island. The natives of the islands of Bougainville Straits, for instance, are noticeably taller than those of St. Christoval at the opposite end of the group, the averages of about thirty measurements in each region, differing by from one half to three quarters of an inch. This difference of height in these two localities is accompanied by other important changes in the physical characters which will be subsequently referred to.

The range of my measurements may be contrasted with those obtained by Miklouho-Maclay on the coast of New Guinea (vide “Nature,” Dec. 7th, 1882).

Papua-Koviay coast,1·75 to 1·48mètres.
Maclay coast,1·74 to 1·42„
Solomon Islands,1·74 to 1·51„

CHEST-GIRTH.

The range of the eighteen measurements given in the subjoined [table] is 311⁄2 to 37 inches: and since half of these are included between 34 and 35 inches, we may consider these as the limits of the average chest-girth of the natives in the portions of the group in which the measurements were made, viz., the islands of Bougainville Straits and St. Christoval, with its adjoining islands.

Girth in
inches.		Number of
Measurements.		Stature
taken as 100.
50...1
311⁄2to32152-53...3
32 to33353-54...7
33 to34354-55...3
34 to35955-56...2
35 to36056-57...1
36 to37257·2...1
Total, 18Total, 18