ANCIENT SCRIPT IN AUSTRALIA. 261 
It is curious that the natives distributed over this large 
continent are so much alike in appearance and characteristics, 
and yet that the area over which any one tribe has possession is 
very limited. When some time ago Bishop Thornton read a paper 
on a somewhat similar subject to the present one, his brother the 
Archdeacon of Middlesex, who was in the chair, suggested that the 
drawings found in certain caves in Australia represented Hindoo 
Buddhist missionaries who had come over on a mission to the 
natives, but of course it is not improbable that wrecked crews 
from different parts of the world have reached this coast and have 
left traces behind them. 
The impression that the Australian natives have left on me is, 
that they were separated from the rest of the world by the 
convulsion which separated Australia from the Asiatic continent, 
during the Marsupial period, and that like the Marsupials they 
have never made any further progress. 
Mr. Rovuss.—Wonuld the Japanese or the Inos wear a turban ? 
I never heard of it. 
Commander Huaru.—No; but the Hindoos would. 
Mr. Rovuss.—It occurred to me that it is more likely that such 
men came from Java, or one of the islands affected by Hindoo 
Buddhists’ customs. 
The Szcrerary.—lI think we ought to recollect, in reference to 
the author of this paper, that that picture undoubtedly represents 
an Australian. He did not manufacture him, or bring him from 
another country, or take a photograph of him from another 
country. He is there and we have to account for it, and he 
endeavours to account for the appearance of these remarkable 
figures by their contiguity with Europeans and their habits. 
Mr. Rousr.—I should like to say that this is the first picture I 
ever saw of an Australian that represented him as a very hairy 
man indeed, with a bushy head of hair and a bushy beard. 
A vote of thanks to the author having been accorded, the 
Secretary then exhibited and explained lantern pictures on the 
screen illustrating the river beds at the bottom of the ocean. 
The meeting then adjourned. 
