88 THE PAPUANS: COMPARATIVE NOTES, ETC., 
these reproduced in the offspring in several cases which I took 
the trouble to watch. 
The theory of mixed races does not hold good in searching 
out the origin of the true Papuan. Had such a mixture of 
two, or more races taken place, it must have occurred during a 
period so remote that the offspring of such mixture or mixtures 
would, through future crossings, have been eventually absorbed 
into one or other of these races, and would leave no traces of the 
weaker or suppressed race for future observers. It would, I. 
believe, be puerile to expect or even suppose that the races 
would be so evenly balanced that each could retain its own 
typical characteristics, and at the same time co-operate in the 
formation of a third or hybrid race. Such ideal conditions may 
read very well on paper, but they cannot exist in nature, 
certainly not among members of the human race. 
I think therefore that the many different tribes which, in the 
aggregate, make up the Papuan race of the present day, have 
in themselves all the necessary ingredients which, through 
time, have eventuated the present inhabitants of Papua without 
having recourse to the theory of a conquering race or races 
having left an indelible brand upon the original indigenes of 
the soil. 
It now remains to quote Signor D‘Albertis’ views regarding 
the natives of the Fly River, the last portion of New Guinea 
explored by him— 
“1At Kiwai we have a prognathous people with small round 
heads, low and very narrow foreheads, zygomatic arch and 
upper orbits very strongly marked, and the temporal bones 
excessively depressed. 
“Near Canoe Island we found, at only fifty miles from 
Kiwai, a prognathous but otherwise completely different type ; 
the skull flattened at the top and extremely long from back to 
1New Guinea, L. M. D‘Albertis, 1881; Vol. 2 p. 377. f 
