lowing immediate]}' on the most typical archaeolithic stage that 

 is known to us. The presence of the aborigines in the island 

 necessarily, he thinks, implies former continuous land between 

 Tasmania and Australia, though such 'connection is proved to 

 have existed by evidence of a totally different nature. The 

 theories of previous vvriters are discussed, and the conformation 

 and submarine topography of Bass Strait are described in de- 

 tail, with suggestions as to the various stages assumed at dif- 

 ferent periods by the connection of Tasmania with the main- 

 land of Australia. The paper is illustrated by plates showing 

 in elaborate detail the author's researches and conclusions re- 

 specting the submarine physiography of Bass Strait and the 

 records of glaciation. 



Mr. Ritz wished to know what e\idence there was that the 

 Tasmanian aboriginal came from anywhere at all. The language 

 of these aboriginal races was so simple that he was led to 

 consider the autochthonous origin of the aborigines. 



Mr. R. M. Johnston complimented Dr. Xoetling on his 

 paper and the contour maps accompanying it. He agreed that 

 Victoria and Tasmania must have been connected by land at 

 one time. The close relationship of Victorian flora and fauna 

 and that of Northern Tasmania in the tertiary period showed it. 

 Undoubtedly Tasmania and Victoria had been repeatedly con- 

 nected and disconnected. He believed that the Tasmanian 

 aboriginals came from the north before the sea intervened, and 

 subsequently the sea cut them ofif from the mainland, and so the 

 ancient race of the mainland was preserved undisturbed, whilst 

 on the mainland itself, subsequent mixtures with intruding and 

 more aggressive races produced a higher race of blacks in 

 Victoria. 



?dr. A. J. Taylor said the Tasmanian aboriginals were very 

 different in type of skull from those of the mainland, and had 

 curl}' hair, whilst the Victorian blacks had straight hair. 



Air. T. Stephens said that the fact that Tasmania at one time 

 f(3rmed a part of what is now the continent of Australia was an 

 established fact, and it was' highly improbable that the ancestors 

 of the aborigines of Tasmania had any means of crossing the 

 sea when what is now Bass Strait intervened. The period that 

 has elapsed since their first arrival is, of course, a matter of 

 speculation. The Tasmanian type is closely allied to that of the 

 Papuan, and the original representatives of this race were 

 probably gradually driven southward by the Malayan intruders 

 until they turned at bay among the mountams of what is now 

 Tasmania, and held their own among all comers. 



3. On Certain Tvpes of Stones used bv the Aborigines. By 

 H. Stuart Dove, F.L.S. 



The paper contains a description of a number of worked 

 stones collected by the author on the North-West Coast, and 

 comprising two types of the so-called " hammer stones," the 

 material of which they are composed being diabase. 



