THE AXTigUITY OF MAN IN TASMANIA, 

 PL I. and II. 



By Fritz Noetlixg, M.A., Ph.D., etc. 

 (Read April nth, 1910.) 



I. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 



There exists in Tasmania perh.aps the greatest un- 

 conformity in the history of evolution oi the human 

 race that we know of. ^Modern civilisation follows im- 

 mediately on the most typical archaeolithic stage that 

 is known to us. All intermediate stages which we 

 observe in other countries are missing in that island. 

 From this point of view it was fortunate that the contact 

 between the lower and the higher civilised race lasted 

 for such a short time only. Not thirty years lapsed be- 

 tween the first encounter at Risdon ferry and the final 

 deportation of the Aborigines to Flinders Island. This 

 time was not long enough to adulterate the archaeolithic 

 civilisation by the introduction of foreign ideas. How- 

 ever deplorable it may be that the Aborigines died out so 

 rapidly, there is at least one consolation in their fate 

 — their civilisation has been delivered to us in all its 

 characteristic features. But we have to thank another 

 lucky accident for this, viz., the insular seclusion of Tas- 

 mania. On the eastern, southern, and western coast we 

 find abysmal depths within a few miles from the shore. 

 The 5QO-fathom line is hardly more than 30 nautical 

 miles from the land. Only in the north of the island we 

 notice shallower water. Nowhere in Bass' Straits be- 

 tween Hunter's Island in the west and Cape Portland in 

 the east, Tasmania in the south and Australia in the 

 north, does the depth exceed 50 fathoms (i). 



(i) In the south the coast drops within two miles from the 

 shore to 61 fathoms depth. 



