﻿NO. I SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I925 75 



The data obtained in Australia, supplemented by those on the 

 Tasmanian material in the College of Surgeons, London, throw a 

 very interesting and to some extent new light on the moot questions 

 of both the Australian and the Tasmanian aborigines. According to 

 these observations, the Australian aborigines deserve truly to be 

 classed as one of the more fundamental races of mankind, and yet 

 it is a race which shows close connections with our own ancestral 

 stock — not with the negroes or Melanesians (except through ad- 

 mixture), but with the old white people of postglacial times. They 

 carry, however, some admixtures of the Melanesian blacks, which is 

 more pronounced in some places than in others. 



As to the Tasmanians, the indications are that they are in all 

 probability but a branch of the Australians, modified perhaps a little 

 in their own country. Both peoples have lived, and the Australians 

 of the northwest live largely to this day, in a paleolithic stage of 

 stone culture. They are still making unpolished stone tools, which 

 in instances resemble the Mousterian implements or later European 

 paleolithic types. But they are also capable of a much higher class 

 of work. Today, about Derby, bottles are used in making beautifully 

 worked spear heads. 



In the Anatomical Department of the University of Sydney, with 

 the kind aid of Professor Burkitt, Dr. Hrdlicka had the chance to 

 examine several times the Talgai skull, believed to be of geological 

 antiquity. The specimen was seen to bear undeniable affinities with 

 the Australian cranial type, but the very large palate and the teeth 

 need further consideration. 



From Australia Dr. Hrdlicka's journey led to South Africa and 

 disembarking at Durban, Natal, the first task was to see as many as 

 possible of the Zulu, about whose exact blood affinities there was 

 some doubt. Large numbers were seen, and the conclusion was 

 reached that they are unquestionably true negroes, though now and 

 then as in other negro tribes, showing a trace of Semitic (Arab?) 

 type due probably to old admixtures. 



The two main objects of the visit to South Africa were the 

 investigation on the spot of the important find of the Rhodesian 

 skull, and of the recent discovery of the skull of a fossil anthropoid 

 ape at Taungs, which had been reported as being possibly a direct 

 link in the line of man's ascent. South Africa is a land full of 

 anthropological interest. There is the disappearing old native popu- 

 lation of Bushmen, Strandloopers, and Hottentots ; the newer negro 

 population which amounts already to over 7,000,000 and is steadily 

 increasing; the almost stationary population of 1,500,000 South Af- 



