mankind ever made, that which opened the way to higher 

 evolution, the artificial hafting of his tools- \Vhon imple- 

 ments were haftcd the necessity of producing a firm rest 

 for the thumb could be dispensed with, both faces could 

 be wrought, thereby unquestionably increasing the ethci- 

 ency of the tools. 



I cannot dwell here on the question of a passage stage 

 between Arclia>olithic and raUTolilhic implements. To us 

 highly civilised beings, the step from an Archaeoiithe to a 

 PaliEolithe is so simple, so easy, that it seems unintelli- 

 gible that a race existed for uncountable generations 

 without making it; yctitisi certain that the Tasmanian 

 Aborigines never made that step- They had reached the 

 Archasolithic stage of evolution, and though this stage must 

 have lasted for an almost unmcasui-able period, and though 

 certain individuals must have acquired a great skill in 

 working the indical face, they never got beyond it- There 

 Arose no inventive genius among them who substituted tno 

 ai-tificial hafting of implements to the natural grasp of 

 the fingers, turning the Archaeoiithe into the more efficient 

 Paljeolithe! 



The fact that there existed in Tasmania an absolutely 

 pure Eolithic-Ai-chseolithic civilisation almost up to mod- 

 ern times, is of the greatest interest. Unfortunately, this 

 fact has only been recognised when it was too late to col- 

 lect information which would have shed a flood of light 

 on the early history of our own race. Many a problem 

 that will remain such for ever, could have been satisfac- 

 torily cleared up had the great importance of the Tash 

 manian race with regard to preliistorical study been earlier 

 recognised. As it is, we have to content ourselves by 

 carefully studying the few indestructible traces the race 

 has left behind, viz., their stone implements, and to at- 

 tempt combining the results of our studies with the few 

 scanty data that have been delivered to us about the life 

 of the Aborigines. In order to arrive at some conclusions 

 which may be of the greatest importance in clearing up the 

 early history of our race, I will attempt here to give a few 

 observations, based cm my own studies, but I wish to state 

 they are far from being exhaustive. 



II.— DESCRIPTION OF THE TASMANIAN AMOK- 

 PHOLITHES. 



1.— HISTORICAL SUMMARY. 



It would be beyond the limits of this paper to give 

 an exhaustive summary of the work previously done. 

 Apart from a few scattered, though valuable notes in the 



