217 



We may judge that the size of his tool would largely depend 

 on the size of the raw material available for its manufacture; 

 and, also, on the facility with which it could be manipulated. 

 Moreover, where a suitable stone for trimming occurs in 

 unlimited quantities and distributed over wide areas, the 

 Aboriginal craftsman may have been prodigal of his workman- 

 ship, and his decision as to whether he should keep the freshly 

 made implement for future use, or leave it behind when done 

 with, would depend on the circumstances of the moment. 



There are difficulties, however, in assuming that these 

 large and uncouth implements were made by the natives now 

 in possession of the country. These particular implements 

 are not found outside the gibber, or tableland, country, ^ and 

 they belong to particular types, which, so far as I am aware, 

 have not been manufactured by the Aborigines of Australia 

 within modern times. 



(b) AN HYPOTHESIS CONCERNING THE TASMANIANS. 



The possibilities of these implements having been made 

 by an earlier race than the existing Australian natives opens 

 up an interesting enquiry If such an earlier autochthonous 

 people existed in Australia, it is natural to suppose that the 

 Tasmanians were that people. 



It would be beyond the bounds of our subject to review 

 the many and conflicting theories that have been advanced 

 as to the racial relationships of the Tasmanians and how they 

 came to be in possession of Tasmania. That they reached 

 Tasmania by sea seems improbable from physiographical and 

 other reasons. With the exception of its northern coasts, 

 Tasmania is faced by ocean deeps so profound that it is 

 unlikely, during the human period, that there has been much 

 more land above sea level, within a thousand miles of the 

 island, than exists to-day. Moreover, the Tasmanian natives 

 had not the skill to construct anything in the shape of a boat 

 jniore than a very crude and temporary raft. Most writers 

 believe that the Tasmanians reached their island home by way 

 of the mainland of Australia. [See I., p. 49; in., p. 955; 

 iV., p. 265; vi., p. 730; vn., p. 72; xn., (a) p. 30; xiv., pp. 

 232, 233; xxiv., pp. 85, 86. Baldwin Spencer, Federal Hand- 

 book, British Assoc, Melb., 1914, p. 34. Sir William Turner, 

 Trans. Eoy. Soc. Edinburgh, xlvi., part 2, pp. 393, 394.] 



(4) This limitation in the distribution of the specimens may 

 be explained, in part, from the fact that the lower ground is 

 occupied by the river plains that have been built up by flood 

 waters dating from a remote period. These sediments (which 

 often take the form of drifting sand) have covered and obscured 

 much of the ancient floor of the country. 

 H 



