PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 729 
The Tasmanians, he thinks, once occupied the mainland, and were 
driven southwards by more warlike or skilful tribes. Although 
to float across Bass’s Straits in a canoe might be sometimes 
hazardous, yet in calm weather it would be easy, and the so-called 
catamarans of Southern Tasmania could not be filled with water 
or upset. 
Such then are the views which have been recorded by various 
writers on the Tasmanian and Australian aborigines. 
I shall now proceed to deal with this subject as it presents 
itself to me when looked at from the standpoint of present know- 
ledge. 
The level of culture of the Tasmanians is best indicated, apart 
from their customs and beliefs, by the the primitive character of 
their weapons and implements. The former were a spear, which 
was merely a thin pole hardened and pointed in the fire, and a 
club which was also used as a missile weapon. Flints chipped on 
one side were used for cutting, scraping, and being held in the 
hand, without a handle, for chopping.* 
The only means they had for navigating the waters was a rude 
raft, or a bundle of bark tied with grass or strips of kangaroo skin 
into a canoe-like shape, by which a river or a narrow strait of the 
sea, such as that between Maria Island or Brune Island and the 
mainland, could be crossed in calm weather. + 
Thus, as pointed out by Dr. E. B. Tylor,} the Tasmanians were 
representatives of the stone age development in a stage lower than 
that of the Quaternary period of Europe, and the distinction may 
be claimed for them of being the lowest of modern nomad tribes. 
The Australians stand on a somewhat higher level than the 
Tasmanians. They are better armed, with the formidable reed 
spear propelled by the throwing stick, the boomerang, and 
variety of clubs which served either at close quarters or as mis- 
siles, and for defence they had the shield. Their canoes are far 
in advance of the raft or the bundle of bark of the Tasmanians, 
and are able if necessary to cross narrow sea straits under circum- 
stances where those would have been destroyed. 
Their stone implements are either ground to an edge or fashioned 
by chipping, as among tribes living where material for the ground 
and polished type of hatchet is not procurable. But even in such 
tribes these are obtained by barter from other tribes. 
The Australians may therefore be classed as_ representing 
hunting tribes of the neolithic age. 
Certain inferences may be drawn from a consideration of 
their social customs and social organisation, but these may be 
more appropriately made at a later time in this address. 
* XLYII, chap. Iv. } XLVH, p. 161. { Lyu. 
