A Ildlf-cfiste Taxman io/n. 15 



period the present continent of Austrii.lia was divided into two 

 parts, an Eastern and a Western Australia. 



His precise statement is as follows : — 



" If we examine the geological map nf Austniilia (given in 

 ■' Stanford's Compendium of Geography and Travel, volume 

 Australasia), we shall see good reason to conclude that the 

 eastern and the western di%'isions of the country tirst existed 

 as separate islands, and only became imited at a comparatively 

 recent epoch. This is indicated by an enormous stretch of cre- 

 taceous ajnd tertiary formations extending from the Gulf of 

 Carpentaria completely across the Continent to the mouth (jf 

 the Murray River At this epoch then .... Aus- 

 tralia may not improbably have consisted of a very large and 

 fertile western island, almost or quite extra-tropical, amd extend- 

 ing from the siliu-ian rocks of the Flinders Range in South 

 Australia, to about 150 miles west of the present west coast, and 

 southward to about 350 miles south of the Great Australian 

 Bight To the east of this, at a distance of from 250 to 400 

 miles, extended in a north and south direction, a long, but com- 

 paratively narrow island, stretching from far south of Tasmania 

 to New Gtiinea, while the crystalline and secondary formations 

 of Central North Australia probably indicate the existence of 

 one or more large islands in that direction." 



I am informed that Wallace's contention as to complete sepa- 

 ration of the Australian Continent into two haJlves is geologi- 

 cally untenable, although the wide extension of a cretaiceous sea 

 over what is now Central Australia, as well as the land connec- 

 tions between New Guinea, Eastern Atistralia, and Tasmania 

 are admitted. 



Notwithstanding that certain parts of Bonwick's assumptions 

 as to land connections have thus been proved to be correct, the 

 theory which he built thereon as to the origin of the Tasmaaiians 

 cannot, in my opinion, be sustained. Bonwick assumed the pre- 

 sence of a large southern continent, by means of which Austra- 

 lia, Tasmania, and New Zealand were connected together, and 

 he thinks thajt both the Tasmanians and the Australians eman- 

 ated primarily from this continent. Tlie submergence of this 

 continent, and the subsequent separation of Tasmania from the 

 Australian mainland resulted in the long isolation of the Tas- 



