BY FRITZ NOETLING, M.A., Ph.D., ETC. 233 



rently detestable to them in order to reach their beloved 

 old home. 



It is therefore more than certain that they must have 

 arrived at a time when present Tasmania was connected 

 with some other outside region. If we assume that the 

 Aborigines came from some more southern region, we 

 must presume the existence of an antarctic land free of 

 ice and snow, and that there existed a continuous stretch 

 of land from Tasmania to the South Pole. If such land 

 exist-ed it would be absurd to assume, in face of the 

 depths that have been recorded north and south of the 

 island, that Tasmania was not also connected with the 

 continent of Australia. Some faddists favour this theory, 

 but is it probable that when all these enormous changes 

 took place that resulted in the glaciation of the antarctic, 

 and the creation of a deep ocean where hitherto land 

 had been, the Tasmanians peacefully remained in 

 the island? It is much more probable to assume that 

 when the first earthquakes shook the surface, when large 

 tracts of land suddenly disappeared under the infuriated 

 waters of the ocean, when volcanoes were belching forth 

 their fiery streams of lava, they fled in mortal terror in 

 that direction which was the safest, namely, towards 

 north. Unless we believe that within 24 hours a catas- 

 trophe occurred that turned Tasmania from being part 

 of a continent into an island, whose inhabitants, either 

 human or animals, were thus cut off from all retreat with- 

 out a moment's notice, the theory of immigration from 

 the south is untenable. Even if this were probable, or 

 even possible, we will see later on that all the survivors 

 would have miserably perished of cold and hunger, and 

 Tasmania would have remained uninhabited either by 

 human beings or animals. Similar arguments apply to 

 the theory of immigration from the east or west. There 

 remains, therefore, only one direction from which the 

 Aborigines can have come, viz., the north — that is to say, 

 from the continent of Australia. At the present day a 

 shallow, rather narrow, strait separates Australia and 

 Tasmania, but it is still broad and deep enough to pre- 

 vent even the Aborigines of Victoria, who understand 

 how to construct serviceable boats far superior to the 

 grass bundks of the Tasmanians, from reaching this 

 island. Is it probable to assume that the lower Tas- 

 manians succeeded where the more intellectual and 



