18 Richard J. A. Berry: 



reached Van Dieman's Land, by way of Australia, lon^: anterior 

 to the commencement of the comparatively high civilisation of 

 those portions of the race still inhabiting New Guinea and the 

 adjacent islainds, and also anterior to the advent of the existing 

 native race, characterised by their straight hair amd by the pos- 

 session of such weapons as the boomerang, throwing stick, and 

 shield, quite unknown to the Tasmanian.'' 



De l;)uatefages (21) says: — In Australia there are two dis- 

 tinct types — Australians prcj^^er and Australian Neanderthaloides 

 — the latter a small group occupying the country about Adelaide, 

 and having, among other characteristics, hair which closely re- 

 sembles the woolly hair of the negro This fact can 



be accounted for by presuming that true negroes formerly oc- 

 cupied the whole or a part of Australia ; that they were invaded 

 by a black race with straight hair ; and that it is to a blood 

 mixture that the differences in the hair must be attributed. It 

 is probable that the Tasmanians furnished this negritic element. 

 Their former existence in Australia has nothing about it which 

 may not be verj^ natural, and their facial characteristics occa- 

 sionally approximate closely enough to those of the Australians 

 to allow of the probability of this hypothesis. An examination 

 of the skulls of Australians with woolly hair from the Southern 

 tribes would probably solve the question. Finally, if my con- 

 jecture be well founded, we must admit that the crossing nmst 

 have taken place at a very remote period, and that the woolly 

 hair could only reappear more or less modified by atavistic phe- 

 nomena.'' 



Of the objectors to am essential part of the theory, namely, 

 that the Tasmanian ancestry first inhabited, or passed through 

 the Australian continent on their way to Tasmania, Huxley 

 (16) is the most important. He considers that it is " physically 

 impossible that the Tasmanian could have come from Australia, 

 and apparently the only way of accounting for the presence of 

 the Tasmanian was to assume his migration from New Caledonia 

 and the neighbouring islands. It would appear that at one time 

 a low negrito type spread eastwards, and reached Tasmania, not 

 by means of direct and uninterrupted land communication be- 

 tween New Caledonia and Tasmania, but rather by means of 

 broken land in the form of a chain of islands now submerged, 



