BY FRITZ NOETLING, M.A., Ph.D., ETC. 2QQ 



such an excess of proteids that the rates of the nitro- 

 genous to non-nitrogenous substances would be i : 0.8 

 instead of i : 3.5. 



There is no doubt that no human being could exist 

 on such a diet, and it would have either to alter it or to 



perish. 



We can take it as pretty certain that the required 

 quantity of protein was not solely supplied by shell fish 

 food, even if they were plentiful. An average consump- 

 tion of 300 oysters, not to speak of 1,500, per day per 

 head would soon exhaust even the richest shell beds. We 

 may therefore take it that the daily consumption was 

 considerably under 300 oysters. If we take it at 50 

 oysters only we have seen that even this small number 

 produces in 5,000 years such a cjuantity of shells as to 

 cover a tract of land of half a mile in width and 10 miles 

 in length 10 feet deep (i). 



This number of shell fish is, however, not sufficient to 

 sustain Hfe, other more solid food was required. A cray- 

 fish may have often helped, but it did not materially alter 

 the above figures, as it added only more Protein, but none 

 of the other substances. We will assume that in addi- 

 tion to the oysters each person consumed i kilo^-2.2 lbs. 

 of meat of sorts (kangaroo, wombat, etc.). The quantity 

 contains — 



Grams. 



Water . . 744 



Protein 205 1 



Fats 35 I ,. , 



Carbo-hvdrates - ^40 solids. 



Salts 16 J 



(i) In five thousand years 1,500 oysters per day per individual 

 would form a shell heap half-a-mile in width, 10 feet deep, and 

 300 miles in length; or, if we were to assume that the layer was 

 not thicker than i foot, the shells would cover an area of 1,500 

 square miles. In 100,000 years more shells w^ould have been pro- 

 duced as to cover the whole island with a layer of one foot in 

 thickness! Even if we were to take the minimum number of 50, 

 the shells produced in 100,000 years would be sufficient to cover 

 more than one-fifth of the present island by a layer of one foot 

 in thickness. 



