348 APPENDtX. 



lation. of the Louisiade Archipelago, so far, at least, as it 

 is represented by the Vocabularies of Brierly Island and 

 Duchateau Island, from the eastern coast of New Guinea. 

 What points beyond ■were peopled from Louisiade is 

 another question. 



For the islands between New Ireland and New Caledonia 

 our data are lamentably scanty ; the hst consisting of — 



1. A short vocabulary from the Solomon Isles. 



2. Short ones from MaUicollo. 



3. The same from Tanna. 



4. Shorter ones still from Erromanga and 



5. Annatom. 



6. Cook's New Caledonian Vocabulary. 

 7- La Bniardiere's ditto. 



The collation of these vath the Louisiade has led me to 

 a fact which I little expected. As far as the very scanty 

 data go, they supply the closest resemblance to the 

 Louisiade dialects, from the two New Caledonian vocabu- 

 laries. Now New Caledonia was noticed in the Appendix 

 to the Voyage of the Fly (vol. ii. p. 318) as apparently 

 having closer philological affinities with Van Diemen's 

 Land, than that country had with Aiistralia ; an apparent 

 fact which iaduced me to write as follows : " A propo- 

 sition concerning the Tasmanian language exhibits an 

 impression, rather than a dehberate opinion. Should it, 

 however, be confirmed by fature researches, it will at «nce 

 explain the points of physical contrast between the Tas- 

 manian tribes and those of Australia that have so often 

 been insisted on. It is this— that the affinities of language 

 between the Tasmanian and the New Caledonian are 

 stronger than those between the Australian and Tas- 

 manian. This indicates that the stream of population for 

 Van Diemen's Land ran round Australia, rather than 

 across it." Be this as it may, the remark, with our 

 present scanty materials, is, at best, but a suggestion — a 



