372 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION D. 



TORRES STRAIT. 



[Abstract of Lecture by C. HEDLEY, F.L.S., Assistant Curator, Australian Museum, 



fSi/dneii.] 



The subject of Torres Straits is equally fascinating whether 

 considered from the standpoint of geologist, biologist, or anthro- 

 pologist. From the latter aspect it forms the boundary between the 

 Australian and the Papuan races. Though much farther advanced 

 in civilisation, the Papuan was unable to gain a footing in Australia. 

 As an agriculturist, a trader, a navigator, or a mechanic, the 

 Papuan gained, held, and improved the islands of the Strait. But 

 as a fighter he was the inferior of the fierce tribe which held the 

 strong strategic point of Cape York. "This inferiority was partly the 

 inferiority of the agTiculturist to the hunter, and partly the 

 inferiority of the bow and arrow to the womerah and javelin. The 

 Australian propelled a heavier missile farther. The prompt way in 

 which the Cape York men turned out to fight Oaptain Cook in 1770, 

 shows how subject they were to the head-hunting foi^ays of the 

 Papuans. 



Standing on the end of Cape York, the geologist notes, to the 

 northward, a cluster of lofty granitic islands, from the latter may be 

 seen more islands extending northwards, and so on right across the 

 Strait. These islands are the peaks of a drowned mountain range, 

 the continuation of the Australian cordillera. In past ages this range, 

 standing at a higher level, bridged the Strait by an isthmus which 

 linked Australia to New Guinea. At that time the shore of the 

 continent extended to where the Barrier Reef now is. 



Geologically the Strait falls into three divisions, the continental 

 islands just described, the low coral islands to the east of them, and, 

 on the extreme north-east, a group of volcanic islands. The largest 

 of these is Mer or Murray Island, on which the rim of a large ash 

 crater is still distinct. The two monsoons have piled the ash into 

 a tall hill and a low one, the work respectively of the N.E. and the 

 N.W. monsoons. Numerous blocks of dolomitised coral among the 

 ash show the crater pipe to have burst through a deep-seated stratum 

 of coral. 



To a biologist the Strait would always be a happy hunting 

 ground. South from Cape York, and diminishing as we recede, are 

 a number of New Guinea plants and animals. Contrasted and 

 supported by another series of Australian plants and animals 

 occurring in New Guinea, these add force to the geological argument 

 for a former isthmus across Torres Strait. By that route the 

 cassowary and the palms travelled south, while the mai'supials and 

 eucalypts went north. 



In marine zoology the Strait is famous for the extensive beds of 

 pearl-shell {Meleagrina maxima) that occur there. Over a large 

 area the water is maintained at an unusually high temperature. 

 This fosters a rich growth of corals and associated organisms. The 

 dugong has not yet been extirpated, and affords, to the natives, an 

 important food supply. 



