178 PRIMEVAL MAN. 



proof than the dwelling-place of their chil- 

 dren. So again, Sir J. Lubbock quotes the 

 testimony of Cook in respect to the Tasma- 

 nians, that they had no canoes. Yet their 

 ancestors could not have reached the island 

 by walking on the sea. Some of the tribes 

 did not know how fire could be obtained if 

 it were once extinguished.* Again, of the 

 Australians, Sir J. Lubbock reminds us that 

 in a cave on the north-west coast "tolerable 

 figures of sharks, porpoises, turtles, lizards, 

 canoes, and some quadrupeds," &c., were 

 found ; and yet that the present natives of 

 the country where they were found were 

 utterly incapable of realizing the most vivid 

 artistic representations, and ascribed the draw- 



* " Prehistoric Times," pp. 354-5- 



