considers them with regard to their origin, mythology, and traditions, their implements, customs, language, mental characteristics, food, institutions, and superstitions. He concludes that Australia was first occupied by a purely Papuan people, or possibly by a people produced by a fusion of Papuans and Melanesians sparsely and unevenly distributed over the continent. Taking for granted that the cradle of the human race was in Asia, he derives them from the north by way of New Guinea, and he looks upon the now extinct Tasmanians as the lineal descendants of the original Australians.
He then supposes Australia to be invaded by a more advanced fairer, straight-haired race which, arriving at a very early period of the world's history, perhaps on the north-west coast, poured into Central Australia with a generally south-easterly current. Partly driving before it, partly darkening itself by the tide of life upon which it pressed, the stream inundated the whole country, but not to an equal depth.
Finally, it is supposed that another invasion, apparently of Malays, took place from the north, first with some degree of continuity and then intermittently, winding about here and there, touching the shores at various places, and bending back inwards.
The author then says that upon the Papuan aborigines "the Dravidian influx" made a deep and general impression. The influence of the final arrivals, the Malays, was slighter and more partial.
Mr. R. Etheridge, junior, in a most valuable contribution on this subject, asked the question, "Has man a geological history in Australia?"[1] After reviewing the evidence derived from the discovery of stone axes, bone implements, oven mounds common in parts of Victoria, and the occurrence of a human molar in the Wellington Cave in New South Wales, he reaches the conclusion that the matter cannot be summed up better than by the Scotch verdict "not proven."
As to the Tasmanian aborigines, he remarks that the
- ↑ Etheridge, R., junior, "Has Man a Geological History in Australia?" Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, Second Series, vol. v. 1896, pp. 259-266.
