XXVI PROCEEDINGS, OCTOBER. 



pherage " does not persist in adhering to any principle of an obsolete 

 type, buc is an innovation so extraordinary as to pass all practical 

 experience. As feeders to the West Coast lines nothing could be more 

 admirable, and not as the remote future we shall see ib universally 

 adopted, instead of those useless unpayable lines and costly roads that 

 cripple the revenue of new countries. 



Mr. W. F. Ward (Government Analyst), said he did not intend to 

 say very much, as he had expressed himself at a previous meeting. He 

 would, however, say that he entirely disagreed with the views put forth 

 by Mr. Power. 



Mr. Alfred J. Taylor, F.L.S., read the following paper, entitled 

 "Notes on the Shell-mounds at Seaford, Little Swanport." — Among 

 the many interesting relics of the aborigines of Tasmania that yet 

 remain, not the least interesting are the shell-mounds that mark the 

 spot where they formed their encampments and feasted before the in- 

 trusion of a white race had disturbed their simple and peaceful modes 

 of living. Such shell heaps as that to which I am about to refer occur 

 in other parts of the world, and for some time they were supposed to 

 be nothing more particular than ordinary " raised beaches." Even now 

 in Tasmania there are many well-informed people who cannot bring 

 themselves to believe that the shell heaps noticeable in many places on 

 our shores are the kitchen-middens, or " refuse heaps," of the aborigines 

 of the colony ; and it is for the information of such sceptics that I place 

 on record the following evidence as establishing beyond all reasonable 

 doubt the fact that they are this, and nothing more. One has only 

 to examine these remarkable accumulations to obtain evidence of an 

 intensely interesting and convincing character, and the results of a 

 personal examination of the extensive shell mounds to be found on 

 the estate leased by Mr. Samuel Drake at Little Swanport have 

 induced me to hope that a few notes on the subject may be of some 

 interest to the fellows of this Society. 



Mr. R. M. Johnston said he was very pleased to find Mr. Taylor 

 had taken so much trouble in obtaining such valuable information deal- 

 ing with the aborigines of Tasmania. The paper read by Mr. Taylor 

 was extremely interesting from an ethnological point. He (Mr. 

 Johnston) had paid considerable study to the working out of the shell 

 deposits, and on a recent visit to the place referred to in Mr. Taylor's 

 paper he had observed the remains of charred wood, proving that the 

 great deposits of shells had been made by natives, and were not formed 

 by other agencies. 



Mr. E. D. Swan said some years back Mr. Mitchell, who resided on 

 the East Coast, had, at a meeting of the Society, spoken on this matter,, 

 and had been told by the natives themselves that they had de posited 

 the oyster shells that formed the extensive deposits. 



Mr. Morton said the paper read by Mr. Taylor was a most impor- 

 tant one from an ethnological point, the specimens collected being ex- 

 ceedingly interesting. Although there was a difference of opinion 

 still existing regarding these shell deposits, from what he himself saw 

 he could arrive at no other conclusion than they at one time were 

 formed by natives. Although Darwin in his work " on the structure 

 and destruction of coral reefs and geological observations on the volcanic 

 islands," page 258, states that during his visit to Tasmania he examined 

 several of the shell deposits, and was of opinion that while some of the 

 mounds may have been formed by the aborigines, the greater number 

 of these deposits he considered had been caused by a small elevation of 

 the land. Captain Grey and other travellers have found in Southern 

 Australia upraised shells, belonging either to the recent or to a late 

 tertiary period. The Rev. W. B. Clarke found proofs of the elevation 

 of the land, to the amount of 400ffc. at the Cape of Good Hope. 

 Darwin says that when visiting Tasmania he was assured by an intelli- 



