128 " ^f JOHNSTON MEMORIAL LKCTIRE. 



back many thousands of years into the past, is suggested 

 by the following consideration, among others: — 



The marked differentiation of the Tasmanian emu and 

 the King Island emu (respectively Droviains dicmensis and 

 D. peroni) from the emu of the mainland, D. uovw-hoUandiae, 

 surely demands a period of geological time to be estimated by 

 more than just a few thousands of years, probably some- 

 thing more of the order of 20,000 to 50,000 years. It will 

 be noticed that King Island w^ould have been united to the 

 mainland of Tasmania up to the latest date of the union 

 of Tasmania with the Australian mainland, as the old eastern 

 land bridge by way of Flinders Island and the King Island 

 land bridge would both be restored if the ocean level were 

 dropped by 30 fathoms. 



iv. Anatomical and Physiological Evidence. 



a. Alliance of Tasmanians to the primitive negrito 

 races. 



This matter will be discussed very briefly, the reader 

 being referred to the works of reference by Professor Berry, 

 Dr, S. A. Smith, etc., given in the Bibliography. 



The Tasmanians living in the eastern half of the island 

 were mostly of small stature, the average height of the men 

 being 1661 millimetres = 5ft. 5iin., that of the women 150.'j 

 mm.~4ft. ll^in. The colour of their skin was rather moi*e 

 black than brown. 



b. The mouth was big, and the teeth larger than thjse 

 of any other existing race. They were ulotrichous. Cephalic 

 index .75. 



c. As regarcTs a downward limit to the date of the 

 Tasmanian aborigine, the fact must not be lost sight of that 

 he was essentially hnyun, at all events, as far as relates to 

 the types of him with which we are familiar. He had little 

 special affinities with Enavthropim or with PithccanthropuH. 



d. Had the Tasmanian aboriginal been resident in a 

 cool temperate climate like that of Tasmania for a vast 

 period of geological time, one would have expected that the 

 primitive blackness of his ccmplexion, so characteristic of 

 trrpical peoples, would have shown some signs of passing into 

 paler shades, sucn as light br.jwn, or even white. 



V. Associated Fauna. 



a. It will be shown in the next division of this paper 

 that the dingo at the Wellington Caves, in New South Wales, 



