THE FOOD OF THE TASMANIAN ABORIGINES. 

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



(Read July nth, 1910.) 



1.— INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 



In a previous paper (i) I made a short calculation as 

 to the quantity of shells that would collect on the refuse 

 heaps within a given time, supposing each person con- 

 sumed 50 oysters or haliotis per day. The quantity, 36 

 million shells per year for a population of not more than 

 2,000 souls, is startling; but subsequently I had my 

 doubts whether such a small quantity, though yielding 

 an enormous number of shells, contained sufficient 

 nourishment to be of material use in sustaining life. A 

 priori it seems that 50 oysters represent such a .-mall 

 quantity of food that this could hardly be considered suf- 

 ficient, and that it must be supplemented either by other 

 foodstuffs or that the quantity of shell fish consumed must 

 be much larger. If only 100 instead of 50 oysters were 

 consumed, the number of shells produced would just be 

 double the quantity of my previous estimate; that is to 

 say, it would cover a tract of land half-a-mile in width, 

 10 feet deep for 20 and 32 miles respectively in length. 

 But even 100 oysters are not much to sustain life on, and 

 we will see later on that the number to supply the neces- 

 sary quantity of nourishment is so large that it is out of 

 question altogether. I therefore went somewhat closer 

 into the study of their diet, with the result hat I have been 

 able to throw some new Hght on the physiology of that 

 race — a light that will greatly help us in our knowledge 

 of primitive man on the whole. 



I am greatly indebted to Dr. George Webster, who 

 not only drew my attention to a valuable paper pub- 

 lished by Dr. Harry Campbell on the diet of the primitive 



(i) The Antiquity of Man in Tasmania, Pap. and Proceed. 

 Roy. Soc. Tasman., 1910. i 



