PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 19 



are in the British Museum. It also collected information 

 from the inhabitants ; but the ancient writing, of which 

 about 15 specimens on wooden slabs are known to exist, 

 has not yet been interpreted. The whole social condition 

 of the island was permanently upset by a Chilian slave raid 

 about 1862, which carried off half the native population, and 

 many of the old customs and ways are now hardly known. 



ARCHAEOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY. 



The fossil human skull found at Talgai, Queensland, has 

 been cleaned from a hard mineral incrustation, and is con- 

 sidered to be that of a boy of about 16 years of age. It 

 nearly resembles in general conformation some types of 

 modern Australian aboriginal skulls ; but in the great develop- 

 ment of the front portion of the jaw and the size of the teeth 

 it is more primitive and apelike than any other known 

 skull except the Piltdown. The capacity of the brain (about 

 1,300 c.c.) does not, however, differ from that of many 

 modern Australian aboriginals. Portions of a second skull of 

 Eanihropus Dawsoni were found in the Piltdown gravel 

 by ths late Mr. Dawson, and have been presented to the 

 British Museum (Nat. Hist.) by our Member, Mr. F. Du Cane 

 Godman. The Address of the President of the British 

 Association (Sir Arthur Evans) deals with the origins of 

 European civilization, and includes an account of the wonder- 

 ful discoveries of Palaeolithic paintings found in caves in 

 Spain, where, besides animals, human figures occur in 

 abundance. Bands of archers opposed to each other, women 

 clad in gowns and sashes, uniting in a dance, bowmen with 

 plumed head-dresses also dancing, hunters with dogs or jackals, 

 are pourtrayed. Many of these things we should be inclined 

 to refer to a much more advanced period, but they are said 

 to be undoubtedly of Palaeolithic date, to which the only 

 garments previously attributed would probably be skins. 

 The chief colours used were charcoal and red and yellow 



