JANUARY 27, 1923] 
elements of low atomic weight observed by Millikan. 
It will be seen that the linear relation between the 
Square root of the frequency of corresponding lines 
and the atomic number which holds for the higher 
_ atomic numbers breaks down in this region. In fact, 
_ while there is a general tendency for the corresponding 
frequencies to increase with increasing atomic numbers, 
one is no longer an approximately continuous function 
_ of the other. The vertical spacing between the points 
@ and [7] for any one element is an indication of the 
extension of the relevant spectrum. It will be seen 
that this extension varies in an irregular manner in 

NATURE 
I2I 

the sequence of elements from lithium to oxygen. 
The points shown for lithium are those for the ‘well- 
known red line 6708 A and the end, 2299 A, of the series 
to which it belongs. No lithium: lines were found in 
the ultra-violet beyond 2299 A in the region in which 
the vacuum grating is effective ; so that if the alloca- 
tion of these spectra, for the intervening elements up 
to aluminium, to the L X-ray series of the respective 
elements is correct, this series is the L series of lithium. 
This forms very convincing evidence of the essential 
similarity of X-ray and visible spectra. 
(To be continued.) 
The Natives of Australia.! 
By Stoney H. Ray. 
N the National Museum of Victoria at Melbourne 
a special gallery has been devoted to a fairly 
_ representative collection of objects connected with the 
daily life of the Australian aborigines. A very instruc- 
tive and well illustrated account of the exhibits has 
been written by Sir Baldwin Spencer, and this gives, in 
a wonderfully succinct form, what are practically short 
comparative essays on the arts and crafts of the natives. 
There seems to be very little 
doubt that the first inhabitants of 
Australia were frizzly-haired people 
_ of the old Stone Age, using unground 
axes, chipped stone knives, and 
Scrapers without handles. They had 
no knowledge of boats or house- 
building. Part of this population, 
cut off by a subsidence which now 
forms Bass Straits, survived in 
Tasmania until modern times, but 
‘on contact with Europeans became 
exterminated. In the Museum these 
people are represented by masks of 
two males and one female and by 
_acast from the skeleton of Truganini, 
the last of the Tasmanians. There 
is also a collection of their stone 
implements. 
1 the mainland the primitive 
_ population was supplanted by people 
ma higher grade of development 
whose origin is still a matter for 
discussion. These people are remark- 
‘ably uniform throughout the con- 
tinent. The average height is about 5 ft. 6 in.; the 
skin a dark chocolate colour and never really black ‘ 
F the head long, the hair wavy, not woolly or frizzly like 
_ that of the Tasmanian, Papuan, or Negro. The people 
are nomadic, living in tribes which have distinctive 
‘names, and roam within certain clearly defined limits. 
They have no villages but only camps or clusters of 
“tude shelters. One of the Museum cases contains a 
_ Tepresentation of a native camp, Fig. This shows 
the mia-mia or shelter made of bark eae gum trees 
_ resting on the windward side of a rough framework and 
forming a sort of lean-to. The man and woman are 
7 *“ Guide to the Australian Ethnological Collection" 
Ni he Museum of Victoria. By Sir Baldwin mye 
Illustrated by 33 Plates. Melbourne : 
"ment Printer, 1922. 
7 NO. 2778, VoL. 111] 
exhibited in the 
142 pp. Third 
Albert J. Mullett, Govern- 
supposed to be returning from a hunting expedition. 
The woman carries in her hand her digging stick, and 
on her back a young child secured in its position by the 
skin cloak. The latter is usually of opossum skins, 
sewn together with sinews often taken from a kangaroo’s 
tail. The head of the clothed man is decorated with 
a string forehead band in which are stuck feathers of 
the black cockatoo. But generally the men wear no 

Fic. 1.—Native camp scene. 
clothing. The man in the foreground is making fire 
with a drill. In connexion with the camp, the foas or 
posts set up by South Australian tribes on departure as 
a guide to new-comers (see NATURE, February 12, 1920, 
p. 643) do not appear to be represented in the Victorian 
collection. 
The languages used differ so much that natives of one 
tribe cannot understand the speech of their neighbours, 
and though in some regions, owing to the absence of 
mountains and rivers, tribes may be closely associated 
and a few words understood, there is even between 
these very little community in actual speech. In the 
Northern Territory the languages appear entirely 
different in grammatical structure from those in South, 
West, or East Australia, and approach in character 
