UNITY OF AUSTRALIAN ItACE. 81 



^yas peopled from Timor and not from New Guinea, 

 judg-ing-^ in the absence of positive proof, from the 

 probabihty that "occupancy had beg'un in Austraha 

 before mig-ration 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 extending- 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 neig'hbouring- 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 g*enuine 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 Kowrareg-a tribe of 

 blacks. At first I was inclined to reg-ard the last 

 more as deg'raded Papuans than as improved Aus- 



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

 M.D. pp. 257, 253. 



VOL. II. G 



