12 



Of these seventy nine Tasmanian crania, forty four are those of 

 males, twenty seven are females, six belong to youths, and of two 

 the sex is not stated. It must be further remembered that Turner's 

 list only comprises, as is quite natural, those Tasmanian crania of 

 which published accounts have been given. 



In view of the fact that so recent a writer as Turner has only 

 succeeded in collating accounts of seventy nine crania, and that he 

 further states in the same memoir that "the opportunity of collecting 

 additional specimens no longer exists" we feel confident that our recent 

 discovery of forty two additional crania will be regarded as one of 

 paramount importance. 



We are well aware that Klaatsch (3) has enunciated the view 

 that both the Australian and Tasmanian aboriginal peoples have sprung 

 from a common root, of which the Tasmanian is the type, and which 

 has become very distinct through local isolation. Without in any way 

 wishing to controvert this view we may state that the results pre- 

 viously achieved by one of us (Berry, 4) would tend to show that 

 there may possibly be another solution of the racial affinities of the 

 Australian and the Tasmanian than the one put forward by Klaatsch 

 and it seemed to us that the ultimate solution could only be achieved 

 by a careful study of the Tasmanian first, and the Australian after- 

 wards. With this view we laid aside the study of the large amount 

 of Australian aboriginal material which Professor Berry has collected 

 since his advent in Melbourne and proceeded in January last to 

 Hobart with the express object of examining the Tasmanian crania 

 mentioned by Turner as being in the Tasmanian Museum, Hobart, 

 and which have been described by Harper and Clarke (5). It was 

 whilst engaged in this study that we had the unexpected pleasure of 

 making this discovery. 



Harper and Clarke (5) deal with twelve genuine Tasmanian 

 crania, number 7 in their list being the cranium of Truganini or 

 Lalla Rhook, the last of her race and who died in 1876. Of these 

 twelve crania one, number 3, has disappeared from the Hobart 

 Museum, and by a curious coincidence, it was the best specimen in 

 the Museum. This therefore reduces Turner's 79 crania to 78. 



On making an examination of the crania in the Tasmanian Museum, 

 Hobart, we found that there were not twelve crania, as stated by 

 Turner, but twenty, and had not one been stolen, as just stated, 

 there would have been twenty one. The twenty Tasmanian crania 

 presently existing in the Hobart Museum comprise: 



