258 E. J. STATHAM, ESQ., ASSOC, M.INST.C.E., ON 
and considering the extreme fecundity of the Marsupiale,-means 
of subsistence must have been exceedingly easy. Since the 
disappearance of the Aborigines in some localities, the opossums 
have increased to such an extent that whole tracts of timber 
country have been destroyed on account of the trees being denuded 
of their leaves by them. The poisoning of the ‘dingo’ in other 
localities has been followed by such an increase of the kangaroo 
that various methods have been adopted to effect their wholesale 
destruction. Again the rabbit has got adrift within the last 20 
years and has overrun New South Wales and Victoria, has 
become a burning political question, and has cost hundreds of 
thousands of pounds to cope with. It may thus be seen how possible 
it is that the primitive increase and distribution of the natives 
may have been very rapid. If you have not the Proceedings of 
the Australian Association you certainly should have them in the 
library, as they contain a great deal of information on these 
subjects. 
**T remain, 
“ Dear Captain Petrie, 
“ Yours faithfully, 
“KH. J. StarHam.” 
DISCUSSION. 
The Presipent.—According to our usual practice I should now 
invite remarks on this paper. At the same time I would say that 
the subject of the paper is one that seems hardly to lend itself to 
much discussion, and the remarks that may be made, I hope, will 
not be very long, as the Secretary has miore photographic slides 
here, and preparations have been made for projecting them on the 
screen in illustration of some questions which he has brought 
before the Society on river valleys under the ocean. 
Mr, Martin Rouse.—Mr. President, about twenty years ago 
a Japanese junk was stranded on the coast of Oregon in the 
United States of America, and it led Professor Daniel Wilson, of 
Toronto, to write a paper on the possibility of ancient blood 
relationship with the Japanese amongst the American Indians, and 
of the spreading of civilization from Eastern Asia through such 
means. Such events must often have happened in the past, 
