14 



Lastly, nine more were excavated by ourselves, and these nine 

 bring up the total of crania discovered by us to 42; as follows: 



1. Nine in the Tasmanian Museum, Hobart 9 



2. Seven in private possession, Hobart 7 



3. Nine in private ownership in the interior .... 9 



4. Five in the Museum, Launceston 5 



5. One in private ownership, Launceston ...... 1 



6. Two owned by the Devonport municipal authorities . 2 



7. Nine excavated by ourselves 9 



Total 42 

 The nine crania excavated by ourselves constitute by no means 

 the least interesting part of the discovery, and it will, therefore, be 

 advisable to say something of the circumstances which attended their 

 recovery. Whilst we were in Hobart we were informed that the few 

 Tasmanian aboriginal natives who had survived the permanent settlement 

 of the island had been collected together into an aboriginal settlement, 

 and that when deceased, they were buried in some ground adjacent 

 to Big Oyster Cove, an inlet of D'Entrecasteaux Channel, some thirty 

 miles south of Hobart. As we were further informed that some 

 human remains had been accidentally discovered on this spot we 

 decided to make a systematic survey of the ground. On our arrival 

 there we ascertained from a settler, whose parents remember the last 

 surviving Tasmanian natives perfectly well, the precise position of the 

 burial ground. He further informed us that the last of these primitive 

 people had been gathered together into a settlement about quarter of 

 a mile from their last resting place, and as a matter of fact one of 

 their huts is still distinctly visible at the site indicated, now overgrown 

 with blackberry bushes, together with the remains of the officers' 

 quarters. Our informant was fortunately enabled to show us the 

 precise position of the burial ground, as he had, on a previous 

 occasion, whilst engaged in sinking holes for fencing purposes, come 

 across a wooden box which he believed to have been a coffin. 



The site of the burial ground had doubtless been selected by the 

 departmental officers of that time, and was situated upon the slope 

 of a rise, the subsoil of which was of a more or less sandy nature 

 overgrown with bracken; on sinking through the sand a limestone 

 formation was found to be present. 



On excavating the spot indicated by the settler we were so far 

 fortunate as to discover nine almost complete skeletons. These ske- 

 letons are those of some of the last pure bred Tasmanian natives and 

 have been interred somewhere about sixty to seventy years. The 



