276 'OOiMlPLAjRKSiOiN OF THE llAJSlMJAjNa.AiN TI10NAT'IV\.. 



During this period for the first time stone was used 

 in the manufacture of arms, while in all the preceding- 

 industries its use had been restricted for domestic — sit 

 venia verbo — purposes. 



The archaeolithic implements of the Chelleen, as well 

 as the Acheuken and Mousterien, do not differ in any 

 way from the tronattas, but it is unquestionable that the 

 indical face shows a much more careful treatment. 



During the Mousterien stage the spear heads were 

 very carefully finished, and these implements prove that 

 the human beings of the period had already attained a 

 great skill in the treatment of stone — a skill that far ex- 

 ceeded that of archaeolithic man. 



And now we come to a very grave problem. The 

 homo mousteriensis Hauseri that has been unearthed at 

 La Chapelle-aux-saints, in France, with a beautifully 

 finished specimen of a coup-de-poing under his left hand, 

 must have been, as his skull conclusively proves, of a 

 much lower type than the Tasmanian race, yet this being 

 used an implement of a much higher type than the 

 Tasmanian, and had in all probability already learnt to 

 provide his spear with a stone head. It is impossible for 

 me to find a satisfactory explanation of these apparently 

 contradictory facts; yet there is no getting away from 

 the fact that the lower developed Mousterien man manu- 

 factured implements of a much higher stage than the 

 higher developed Tasmanian, and that the former hacj 

 already made two inventions which the higher developed 

 Tasmanian never made, viz., the trimming of the imple- 

 ment on both faces, and the providing of the wooden 

 spear with a stone head. 



Even if we were to disregard the interpretation of the 

 coup-de-poing as spear head, the fact that this implement 

 denotes a higher stage in the evolution of stone imple- 

 ments than the tronatta remains undisputable. Likewise, 

 the fact that the homo mousteriensis Hauseri represented 

 a much lower type in the evolution of human beings than 

 the Tasmanian race cannot be disputed either. 



I think that this is a problem of the gravest kind, in- 

 asmuch as it would indicate that though the body can 

 gradually evolve a higher stage, the brain power did not 

 evolve as a corollary. The brain power of the Tasmanian 

 Aborigines still represented the stage of say the human 



