310 PRINCIPAL SIR WILLIAM TURNER ON 



Tasmanians. 



The early voyagers Crozet and Captain Cook, and the French and British 

 navigators and naturalists who followed them in the 18th and early years of the 

 19th century, as well as the European residents in Tasmania in later years who saw 

 the last of the surviving aborigines, described the hair as black, frizzled or woolly, 

 usually in short locks, though sometimes forming separate slender ringlets ; with 

 abundant beard and whiskers. The statements of these observers have been 

 summarised by H. Ling Roth in his comprehensive work on the Aborigines of 

 Tasmania,* and in my memoir on these people. 1" This memoir attracted the 

 attention of Mr Ling Roth, who with great courtesy and liberality forwarded to 

 me in 1908 specimens of the hair of the head of Tasmanians in his possession ; 

 also hair of aboriginal Australians from Queensland for purposes of comparison. 

 As the hair had been cut from the scalp, its full length and the mode of implanta- 

 tion could not be determined. The specimens were accompanied by letters or 

 certificates of identity, and permission was granted to describe their characters 

 and to add them to the collection in the Anatomical Museum of the University. 



Mr Ling Roth's specimens were as follows : — 



No. 1.- — Hair from the head of a Tasmanian aboriginal chief. This specimen 

 was presented in 1898 to Mr H. Ling Roth by Mr James B. Walker of Hobart, 

 with the following history : — It was cut from the head of one of the chiefs who 

 accompanied G. A. Robinson on his " pacific mission." They visited Mr Pike's house 

 at Park Farm, Jericho, sometime about 1832 or later, and Mr Pike's daughter cut 

 a lock from the chiefs head. The specimen consisted of a few loose hairs, the 

 longest of which measured 4 cm.; each of which was curled and black in colour. 

 They are stated to have been pulled out of a lock of hair 17 cm. long and 3 mm. 

 thick, which formed a spiral curl so compact that long hairs could not be extracted 

 from it. The lock was coated with ochre, or a clayey substance. 



No. 2. — Mr Walker also sent later in 1898 a scrap of Truganini's hair, accom- 

 panied by a copy of the following certificate : — " I certify that the accompanying 

 is a lock of Lallah Rook's hair (the last of the aborigines), presented by her to 

 Mr F. Howell. (Signed) J. S. Dandridge, Oyster Cove, 1st April 1872 " (fig. l). 



The original certificate is in the possession of John Macfarlane, who was present 

 at Oyster Cove on 1st April 1872, and at whose request the lock of Truganini's 

 hair was obtained and the certificate given. The lock consisted of a few short 

 hairs from 3 to 4 cm. long ; it formed a close spiral at its middle, but was looser 

 at the periphery. The colour was so dark that it might be called black (fig. 2, A). 



No. 3. — A lock of hair labelled "Hair of Mrs Thos. Cochrane Smith, the so-called 

 last of the Tasmanians." Mr Ling Roth in Appendix G to his work gave three 



* Halifax, England, 1899. 



t "The Craniology, Racial Affinities and Descent of the Aborigines of Tasmania," Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin., 

 part i. vol. xlvi. p. 365, 1908 ; part ii. The Skeleton, vol. xlviii. p. 413, 1910. 



