UNITY OF AUSTRALIAN RACE. 81 



was peopled from Timor and not from New Guinea, 

 jiidg'ing-, in the absence of positive proof;, from the 

 probability tha,t "occupancy had begun in Austraha 

 before migration across Torres Strait had com- 

 menced in New Guinea/' inferred ^^ from the phy- 

 sical differences between the Australian and the 

 Papuan, taken with the fact that it is scarcely likely 

 that the Papuans of Torres Strait would have failed 

 in extendino- themselves in Australia had that island 

 been unoccupied." Timor also is much nearer than 

 New Guinea to the remote source — assumed to be 

 the continent of Asia — whence the Australians have 

 been derived.* 



The unity of the Australian race being* admitted 

 implies one common origin, and that such was not 

 derived from New Guinea, can scarcely, I think, 

 be doubted. Upon examining* the neig'hbourhood 

 of the point of contact between the New Guinea- 

 men and the Australians, we find Cape York and 

 the neighbouring" shores of the mainland occupied 

 by g"enuine and unmixed Australians, and the is- 

 lands of Torres Strait with the adjacent coast of 

 New Guinea by equally genuine Papuans j inter- 

 mediate in position between the two races, and 

 occupying the point of junction at the Prince of 

 Wales Islands we find the Kowrarega tribe of 

 blacks. At first I was inclined to regard the last 

 more as degraded Papuans than as improved Aus- 



* Natural History of the Varieties of Man, by R. G. Latham, 

 M.D. pp. 257, 253. 



VOL. II. G 



