BY JAMES BACKHOUSE WALKEB, P.R.G.S. 71 



this statement is Jeffreys, who says that, with the aid of 

 paddles, they made these rafts skim over the water with 

 amazing rapidity. No one else mentions either paddles 

 or rafts. 



Fish. — Another point somewhat doubtfnl is whether 

 the blacks ever ate scaled fish. It is known, of conrse 

 that shell-fish formed a considerable portion of their 

 food at some seasons, and that they had no hooks or nets, 

 or other method of catching fish, except spearing them. 

 Lloyd says that they used to spear stingrays for sport. 

 Cook (i. 100) relates that when fish, raw or cooked, was 

 oifered to them, they rejected it. No remains of fish 

 have been found about their camps or in their shell 

 heaps. It seems more than probable that they never 

 ate fish, but any information on the point would be 

 valuable. 



Clothing. — The chapter on aboriginal clothing is very 

 like the celebrated chapter on snakes in Iceland. The 

 early voyagers describe the aborigines as absolutely un- 

 clothed. It is true that some of the women carried a 

 kangaroo-skin slung across their backs, but Cook (i. 101) 

 thought that this was not for clothing, but simply as a 

 means of carrying an infant more conveniently. After 

 intercourse with Europeans they used, at times, to wear 

 skins as a covering. It is certainly strange that in a 

 climate at times so severe as that of Tasmania, with a 

 plentiful supply of skins at hand, they had not leai'nt to 

 use them as a protection from the weather. That they 

 never learnt to sew skins together for clothing is one of 

 the strongest proofs of their low intelligence, and that they 

 were on a lower plane than the palaeolithic Drift and 

 Cave men of Europe, who had bone needles. Yet, 

 though apparently so absolutely wanting in originative 

 or inventive faculty, they showed in their captivity no 

 want of intelligence or capacity to acquire such com- 

 paratively difficult accomplishments as reading and 

 writing. 



Implements. — There is probably still something to be 

 learned respecting the chipped stone implements of the 

 aborigines. It has usually been assumed that they were 

 of one general form, but I understand that Mr. J. P. 

 Moir, of the Shot Tower, has a number of concave 

 scrapers, and also of gravers, to which he gives th^ 



