r.Y rilOKKSSOK SIK T. \V. K. DAVID, K.Il.K.. ETC. ^4]^ 



evidence suprgests that to whatever ape the dinp:o belonprs, the 

 Australian aboriginal is cquallj' old. GeoJoKical evidence 

 shows that on the mainland the diniLjo was contemporaneous 

 with some forms of extinct marsupials, such as Thylacoleo, 

 Diprotodov, etc. This, alone, carries back the coming of the 

 Australian aboriginal into Australia to many thousands of 

 years ago. 



3. If the aboriginal flake discovered in the Doone Mine 

 deposit belongs to the Epoch of Wiirmian Glaciation, it may 

 date back to 20,000 years. If, however, as seems not improb- 

 able, it dates back to the time of the Riss Glaciation, then 

 the antiquity would be of the order of about 100,000 years. 



4. The Talgai skull of the Darling Downs, near War 

 wick, in Queensland, although regarded by Professor Keith 

 as essentially that of a Tasmanian aboriginal, is considered 

 by others to be more Australian than Tasmanian- If the 

 latter view is correct, the anthropoid ape characteristic evi- 

 denced in the size and facetting of the canines shows again 

 the high geological antiquity of the Australian aboriginal. 



5. This is supported by the occurrence of remains of 

 dingo, and of a human molar tooth in the cave breccia at the 

 Wellington Caves, in New South Wales, the dingo remains 

 certainly, the human molar doubtfully, in association with 

 remains of Thylacoleo. 



6. However far back the date of arrival of the Aus- 

 tralian aboriginal is pushed into the past, the coming of the 

 Tasmanian must have been older still, for neither the Aus- 

 tralian aboriginal nor the dingo has ever found his way into 

 Tasmania. The obvious explanation is that at some time subse- 

 quent to the arrival of the Tasmanian aboriginal in Tas- 

 mania, during the low sea level which laid bare Bass Strait, 

 the sea returned in its strength, as the result of the melting 

 of the great Pleistocene ice sheets, and stopped the Australian 

 aboriginal and the dingo from migrating into Tasmania. 



7. We have seen that in the Northern Hemisphere the 

 very early men, such as those of Heidelberg in Germany, and 

 Piltdown in Sussex, date back to possibly over a cjuarter of 

 a million years ago, whilst the ape man of Java, the Pithe- 

 cduthropuH, may be fully half a million years old. 



Now as regards the backward limit in time for the Tas- 

 manian aboriginal, it may be noted that their anatomical struc- 

 ture shows little approach to Pithccnnthropnx, or to the old 

 men of Heidelberg or Piltdown. Piltdown man, in particular, 

 is considered by Professor Grafton P^lliott Smith and John 



