17 



fish in any quantity, the testacese and crustacese constituted 

 the principal and almost only supply they drew from that 

 element. 



From the reports of early navigators, it would seem that 

 the aborigines existed in considerable numbers along the 

 coast of Tasmania; and we may thence infer that the con- 

 sumption of shell-fish must have been very great, as they ate 

 no vegetables or substitute for bread. In cooking, the shells 

 appear in all instances to have been merely roasted in the 

 simplest manner, as I have never traced any indications of 

 ovens or stones arranged to be heated. The burning of the 

 shells has hastened their decay. In obtaining the shell-fish 

 the women were, I believe, almost exclusively employed, 

 wherever diving was requisite, as for the species of haliotis 

 and oyster, these being brought to the surface in baskets 

 formed from various sedge-leaved plants. 



In the majority of cases they consumed their food as near 

 as possible to their fishing stations ; occasionally going a 

 little inland to avail themselves of a spring or stream of 

 fresh water. I have, however, observed in a great many 

 instances that there were unusually large accumulations of 

 shells on projecting points, headlands, and places command- 

 ing extensive views, whence I suppose that they adopted 

 these sites for their repasts to protect them from the attacks 

 of hostile tribes." 



He elsewhere describes that the heaps of comminuted 

 shells are various in extent and thickness, and invariably 

 burnt and intermingled with charcoal, etc. 



In corroboration, I have to offer the following observa- 

 tions : — 



1. Wherever the shells are found undisturbed by recent 

 landslips,* I have found them always more or less com- 

 minuted with a burnt-like appearance — unlike the northern 

 raised beaches — and enveloped in what appears to be ashes, 

 for they are invariably full of the charred embers of the 

 wood of existing trees. 



2. At Pipeclay Bluff, Lindisfarne, New Town Bay, and 

 elsewhere, I have frequently found the ordinary rude chipped 

 flints of the natives intimately associated with the shells. I 

 have given samples of these flints to His Excellency the 

 Governor Sir John Lefroy, and to His Honor Mr. Justice 

 Dobson, who will be able to testify as to their genuineness so 

 far as they are chipped native flints. I have also dug out 

 from the undisturbed beds the split bones of existing 

 marsupials, which appear also to have undergone roasting. 



* The section which Mr. Wintle refers to is due, I believe, to the sub- 

 sequent re-distributiou of landslips caused by the encroaching waves at 

 Sandy Bay. 



b 



