^1 Hal/-<:aMe Taxman uui. 7 



As it will be presently shown that the consensus of opinion 

 is apparently in the direction of allying the Tasmanians to the 

 Papuans of New Guinea, the discrepancy in the hair index, as 

 worked out from Bonwick's figures, and of Duckworth's state- 

 ment regarding the low nature of the genuine Papuan hair 

 index would be somewhat remarkable could we relv absolutely 

 on Bonwick's proportions representing actuail measurements, 

 but this, as stated, is only conjectural. 



Roth (12) in his " The Aborigines of Tasmania," published in 

 1890, has presented us with what is, perhaps, the best general 

 description of this race ; as, however, Roth's account of the 

 physical characteristics of the native Tasmaniaia is a compilation 

 from various authors, whilst Bonwick's account is Irom personal 

 obsei'vation, I have preferred to utilise the latter author only, 

 more particularly as, after all, Roth does not, on this question, 

 differ very considerably, if ait all, from the earlier writer. Roth, 

 however, being of more recent date than Bonwick, is much more 

 precise in his anthropometrical data, and these data I hope to 

 avail myself of in a future communication on this subject. 



The subject of the present paper is, as already mentioned, a 

 Tasmaaaian half-caste, and a reference to her photograph will 

 show that she bears many striking resemblances to the pen pic- 

 ture quoted from Bonwick, particularly in the colour of the skin, 

 the width of the mouth and nostrils, the weak chin, and the 

 dark eyes. The hair, though distinctly woolly, has departed 

 from the racial type consequent on the admixture of the white 

 blood, though curiously enough, the native type is, on the 

 whole, more marked in the grand-daughter of the aborigmal 

 mother than in the daughter. In this connection, it is interest- 

 ing to see what has been said of the first Tasmanian half-caste, 

 in contradistinction to this, which is the last of such crosses. 



Evans (9), in his " History and Description of the Present 

 State of Van Dieman's Land" (Tasmania), says: — 



" The eldest child of this (native Tasmanian) woman, now a 

 fine girl about eleven years old, and the first child born by a 

 native woman to a white main in Van Dieman's Land .... 

 is called Miss Dalrymple, and, like all the other children since 

 produced by an intercourse between the natives and the Euro- 

 peans, is remarkably handsome, of a light copper colour, with 



