July 26, 1906] 



NATURE 



297 



same ngc for all items in a stock of folk-tales; and 

 in any case the evidence of myths is unli-iistworthy 

 in matters of history. It seems possible that man was 

 in the area before the fjreat climatic changes described 

 in the work before us ; the failure to find worked stones 

 ■i'isociated with th<' extinct marsupials cannot be 

 i'L;.nded as dicisive until a wider search has been 



lll.Kic. 



L'lifortunately , Prof. Gregory was unable to sec more 

 than a portion of the Tji-tji-ngalla corroboroe. Its 

 iransiiiission raises interesting problems; in Queens- 

 land the Molongo is a kind of evil spirit, and it would 

 be interesting to know whether it is in this light 

 that the principal performer is regarded in Central 

 Australia. Some of the words are recorded, and the 

 aLithor is disposed to see m the fact that they are 

 untranslatable bv the performers evidence of rapid 



that there is no evidence of intermixture, and points 

 to the singular uniformity of type in .Australia as 

 evidence of racial purity. .'Vgainst this it may be 

 said that there is considerable variation in hair, as 

 may be seen by comparing Taplin's South .Australian 

 types with Spencer and Gillen's Central tribesmen. 

 As Prof. Gregory points out, the skull is more vari- 

 able than hair; similarity of physical conditions may 

 have more to do with similarity of skull-type thaii 

 any original uniformity of physical type. 



The latter half of the book is devoted to a discussion 

 of how the dead heart of .Australia can be revived, 

 and of the origin of the water supply of the so-called 

 artesian well in .Australia. It appears that the scheme 

 for an inland sea, to be formed by supplying I.;ikc 

 ICyre with water from the Southern Ocean, is im- 

 practicable. It would cost little less than the amount 



Kii, I. -The 1 ji-tji-iig.Tlla ti.rrol,orue, as |.er f.,nii./.l .it 



changes in language. But it is the unintelligibility 

 which causes the changes, and not vice versa. The 

 song passes from tribe to tribe, and is unintelligible 

 a few miles from its centre of origin. The change 

 in coi^roboree words is therefore comparable to the 

 variations introduced by children into counting-out 

 rhymes, &c., which they have learnt, parrot fashion, 

 from a foreigner; these changes would not be evid- 

 ence of modifications in European languages. 



By discovering dingo bones in association with 

 those of the Thylacinus, now found alive only in Tas- 

 mania, Dr. Gregory has added force-to the argument 

 that the dingo was not introduced by man. He also 

 argues _ that the Tasmanians must have been in 

 Australia before the dingo if, as Dr. Howitt argues, 

 they passed into Tasmania by land. On the relation 

 of the Tasmanians and Australians Prof. Gregory 

 has seen reason to change his view. He now holds 

 NO. I917, VOL. 74] 



of our national di'bt. Prof. Gregory protests against 

 the waste of water from the wells, justifiable only 

 on the supposition that they will never cease to flow. 

 Experience shows that they are already diminishing 

 their supplies, not from any choking of the bores, 

 but from more radical causes, and it is suggested 

 in the work before us that the real source" of the 

 supply is not meteoric, but plutonic; in other words, 

 .\ustralia is recklessly drawing on a banking account 

 which has been steadily piled up for tens or hundreds 

 of thousands of years. Unless measures are taken 

 to check youthful extravagance, future generations 

 of colonists will have cause to regret that no heed 

 is paid to the warnings of geologists. 



The work is excellently illustrated bv numerous 

 maps, plans, and plates. .Anthropologists will look 

 forward to the other work on the aborigines which 

 Prof. Gregory promises in the preface. N. VV. T. 



