SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— H. 465 



down under the influence of the white man. The Australian aborigines 

 present a highly specialised form of society based on simple hunting and 

 collecting subsistence. Their great value for science is due to the fact that 

 they present for our study a large number of societies or social systems of a 

 single general type with many variations. 



In Austraha history has carried out an immense experiment for us upon 

 the results of which we ought to be able to draw important conclusions. 

 For during the many hundreds, or probably thousands, of years that the 

 Australian aborigines have lived in relative isolation from the rest of the 

 world they have been developing their languages, their forms of social 

 organisation, their ritual, their cosmological beliefs. We can never hope to 

 know how the process of development actually took place, but the results of 

 the process are there for our study if we can only study them before they 

 disappear for ever. 



The study of Austrahan tribes began with the work of enthusiastic 

 amateurs , many of them missionaries . Financed by the Rockefeller Founda- 

 tion, a systematic survey of the still surviving tribes was begun in 1926, and 

 the scientific results fully justify the further expenditure of a good many 

 thousands of pounds. The work was planned at Sydney University and 

 carried out by Prof. Lloyd Warner, Prof. Elkin, Dr. D. F. Thomson and 

 others. We have now a good knowledge of the general features of social 

 organisation and totemism in a large proportion of the surviving tribes. 

 What is now needed is something more, namely a number of intensive 

 studies of carefully selected tribes in which a trained research-worker is 

 willing to stay at least two years, and preferably four, in the field, master 

 the native language in all its intricacies, record native texts and study the 

 whole system of ideas and beHefs of the people. Only by a sufficient 

 number of such investigations will it be possible to make full scientific use 

 of the opportunities that Australia offers to us and reach an adequate 

 understanding of a fascinating form of society doomed very soon to vanish. 



General Discussion (11.20). 



Dr. Donald F. Thomson. — Film of Australian life (12.0). 



Afternoon. 

 Dr. J. G. D. Clark. — Recent excavations in the Fens (2.0). 



Dr. G. E. Daniel. — The portholed megaliths of the British Isles (2.35). 



This paper consists of a description of the isolated portholed megahths 

 and of those associated with prehistoric burial chambers which occur 

 in the British Isles, an analysis of their distribution and morphology, and 

 an attempt to explain their relationships to the portholes which occur 

 in other parts of Europe and to suggest various theories to account for their 

 origin and diffusion. Illustration by lantern slides. 



Mr. C. W. Phillips. — The Roman occupation of the Fenland (3.10). 



At the opening of the Roman period the Fens were deserted , but by a .d . 1 00 

 an extensive agricultural occupation of native type had set in, chiefly on 

 the silt lands. 



It is probable that the area was an Imperial domain. 



Work at Welney has shown that by the end of the second century sea 

 floods began, but the wealth and activity of the region continued with little 



