NO. II MELANESIANS AND AUSTRALIANS HRDLICKA 35 



The above are no mere academic objections, but real material ob- 

 stacles that would have to be scientifically disposed of before the 

 claims they relate to could be accepted as established. 



EXTENSION 



The Oceanic " blacks " are represented as having reached Tierra 

 del Fuego, a part of Brazil, Ecuador, and Colombia, and lower as 

 well as upper California, spreading as far eastward, at least, as New 

 Mexico. This is a very wide distribution, but the voids in it are even 

 more remarkable. They comprise vast regions in Argentina, Brazil, 

 the Andean and Pacific South America, and all central America. 

 There is no comfort in the suggestion that many of these parts are 

 still but little known and that the gaps may be closed through future 

 discoveries. A population of such assumed extent would of necessity 

 have represented such numbers and so long a presence that its material 

 remains would have to be at least fairly abundant, and some remains 

 could not have failed to be discovered by this time. Great difficulties 

 here, alone, confront those who would foster the Melano-Australian 

 notions in relation to America. 



CULTURAL REMAINS 



So far as known, the supposed Australian and Melanesian blacks 

 have left no sites that could be attributed to them, no recognizable 

 accumulations, no archeological remains whatsoever in any part of 

 America. They must have forgotten the boats they came in and even 

 the sea itself, becoming largely land dwellers. There is no trustworthy 

 tradition about them. They left, it is claimed, a series of words in 

 some of the Indian languages ; but the words of comparison are taken 

 from different observers, and from the recent Indians as well as the 

 recent Australians and Melanesians, the assumption being that these 

 select words remained the same in both parts of the world from the 

 far past to this day. 



These matters should not be discussed by one not a specialist in 

 these lines ; but there is to be remarked the very striking fact that 

 not one of the numerous American workers of note in the lines of 

 archeology, cultural anthropology, or linguistics, men who have de- 

 voted their lives to these subjects and had the closest contact with 

 the American aborigines, has either advanced or identified himself 

 with the Melano-Australian hypotheses. 



