Photograph from Boston Photo News Co. 

 THE LAUGHING JACKASS (SEE PAGE 505) 



run at the rate of 15 to 20 miles an hour, 

 and break an ordinary fence by impact. 

 The ostrich has been introduced into 

 South Australia and the export of its 

 plumes bids fair to assume considerable 

 proportions. Stray ostriches are occa- 

 sionally met with. On a smooth stretch 

 of desert road north of Port Augusta we 

 had an opportunity to gauge their speed. 

 It was a neck and neck race for 2 miles, 

 with the motor cyclometer registering 30 

 miles an hour. 



THE ORIGINAL AUSTRALIANS 



The isolation of the Australian Conti- 

 nent, so clearly reflected in its fauna and 

 flora, has left its stamp on the native race. 

 Like the kangaroo and the tree fern, the 

 aboriginal is a remnant of bygone days. 

 Paleolithic man, whose primitive tools 

 are eagferlv sought in the caves and grav- 



els of Europe, was alive in Tasmania 

 within the memory of people now living, 

 and Neolithic man is roaming the deserts 

 of Australia by hundreds. 



Though comparatively little is known 

 of the aborigines and many tribes have 

 never been studied, there is general agree- 

 ment that the "blackfellow" is on the 

 lowest rung and perhaps at the very bot- 

 tom of the ladder of civilization. In the 

 opinion of Andrew Lang, "they are in- 

 finitely beneath the status in culture of 

 Paleolithic man of the mammoth and 

 reindeer period," and their "manners and 

 rites were far the most archaic of all with 

 which we are acquainted." 



The Australian native* is unlike the 



*The term "native" is used in the American 

 5ense. In Australia the term is applied to 

 native-born whites. The original inhabitants 

 are "blackfellows" or aborigines. 



506 



