applicable to the Theory of the Earth. 15T 



Section T. 



Zoological Observations lulnch may excite Dorilts in regard 

 to t he primitive Union of New Holland and Van Dlenien's 

 Land, 



Of all the obscfvatinns which may be made in proceeding 

 from Van Diemen's Land to New Holland, the easiest, no 

 doubt the most important, and perhaps also the most in- 

 exphcable, is, the absolute di (Terence of the two races who 

 inhabit these two lands. If we except, indeed, the meagre- 

 ness of the extremities, which is observed equally among 

 both people, they have scarcely any thing common in their 

 manners and customs, in their rude arts, in their imple- 

 ments for hunting or fishing, in their habitations or piro- 

 guas, in their arms or language, in the whole of their phv- 

 sical constitution, in the form of the cranium, or in the 

 proportions of the face. This absolute dissimilarity appears 

 also in the colour : the inhabitants of Van Diemeu's Land 

 being browner tlian those of New Holland ; it appears also 

 in a character hitherto considered as exclusive, namely, the 

 nature of the hair. That of the inhabitants of Van Die- 

 men's Land is short, woolly, and curled ; that of the New 

 Hollanders straight, lank, and stifi'. 



Now how can it be conceived that an island of oO leagues 

 in extent at most, so near to an immense continent, situ- 

 ated also at the extremities of the Austral world, and sepa- 

 rated from every other known land bv the enormous di- 

 stances of five, eight, twelve, and even fifteen hundred 

 leagues, should have a race of oien altogether ditferent from 

 that of the neighbourmg continent ? How can we conceive: 

 this exclusion of all relation, so contrary to our ideas in 

 regard to thccommunication and transmigration of nations ? 

 How can we account for the darker colour, and curled 

 woolly hair, in a country much colder? It appears to me 

 difficult, I confess, to assign a satisfactory reason tor these 

 anomalies. All these curious facts, which will be detailed 

 in the general account of our long voyage, will be new 

 proofs of the imperfection of our theories, which are always 

 suited to the state of the knowledge of the age which gave 

 birth to them. At present I must be contented with de- 

 ducing from this fir^t part of my observations the important 

 consequence, that the separation of Van Diemen's Land 

 Irom Nevv- Holland is not one of the modern operations of 

 nature; for it is probable that if these two countries had 

 been formerly joined they v.ould have had the same race 

 lor inhabitants, and it would no doubt have been that which 



occupies. 



