234 ^^'^ ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN TASMANIA. 



higher civilised Mctorians failed? Even if they had 

 achieved the improbable, why did they not keep in com- 

 munication with the mainland? It would be waste of 

 space to discuss these questions any further ; everything 

 tends to prove that the Aborigines must have arrived in 

 Tasmania when a land bridge or isthmus connected the 

 island with the continent. 



Are we in the position to fix the time when Tasmania 

 was still connected with the mainland, and can we also 

 fix the time when the separation took place? We can 

 say that the time of separation fixes the time of immigra- 

 tion, because the latter must have taken place before, but 

 cannot possibly have happened after the former. 



The question is essentially a geological one, and can 

 only be answered by a geologist. I will here attempt to 

 give a solution, based on my studies of the Admiralty 

 chart of Bass Straits, and geological observations in all 

 parts of Tasmania. 



2. HISTORICAL SUMAIARY. 



If I am not mistaken Howitt (i) was the first who 

 attempted to solve the problem of the origin of the Tas- 

 manian race and the time of their migration to the pre- 

 sent island. Of course, I mean that the problem was 

 treated in a scientific v^ay, because the number of idle 

 speculations is legion. Howitt's paper begins with a 

 valuable review of all older views regarding the origin 

 of the Australians, of which the Tasmanians were to be 

 considered a branch only, and he arrives at a very im- 

 portant conclusion with regard to the Tasmanian race. 

 He says, I.e. pag. 730: — " But there is not a tittle of evi- 

 dence in support of the belief that the Tasmanians ever 

 were acquainted with the art of constructing a canoe able 

 to cross such a sea-strait as that between Tasmania and 

 Australia." And further on: — '' I have long since come 

 to the conclusion that one of the fundamental principles 

 to be adopted in discussing the origin of these savages 



(i) On the origin of the Aborigines of Tasmania and Aus- 

 tralia. Report on the seventh meeting of the Australasian 

 Association for the Advancement of Science, Sydney, 1898, Sect. 

 F., Ethnology and Anthropology, pag. 723-758. 



