btanbridge speaks * of isolated cases of woolly hair among the 

 men. By the courtesy of a friend 1 have in my possession the 

 photograph of a black boy whose hair was of the quality generally 

 called woolly, his name was Wellington and he belonged to the 

 Culgoa River, New South Wales. 



In his " Daily Life of the Tasmanians," Mr. Bonwick says f 

 regarding them, that their hair was not woolly nor like that of 

 the Negro, he cites the opinion of Dr. Pruner Bev, that two 

 specimens examined resembled the hair of the New Irelanders. 

 If Mr. Curr can hold that notwithstanding tlie straightness of his 

 hair " the Australian is by descent a Negro with a strong cross in 

 him of some other race," there should be no difficulty on the score 

 of difference of hair in the way of our regarding him as descended 

 from the Austral Papuan or indigenous Australian with a strong 

 cross of two other races both straight-haired. 



The opinion of the Rev. Geo Taplin, an observer of large ex- 

 perience, is very noteworthy. He says,| "there is a remarkable 

 difference in colour and cast of features, some natives have light 

 complexions, straight hair, and a Malay countenance, while others 

 nave curly liair, are very black and have the features Papuan. It 

 IS therefore probnhle that there are two races of aborif/ine>i." My 

 own theory was formed before I had read this, and besides Mr. 

 Taplin merely reiterates ;i supposition based certainly upon personal 

 experience, but already propounded by earlier New South Wales 

 ^vriters, || and apart from difference of appearance just quoted, he 

 puts forth no proof of his statement. 



The conclusion of so well-qualified an authority that there are 

 pfobably two races of aborigines is in direct conflict with that of 

 ^I'-- Huxley, Avho thinks that the natives of the southern and 

 ^•estern portions of Australia are the most homogeneous of all 

 savages. Observation is certainly against Mr. Huxley with whose 

 ppmion the statement of Dr. A. Lesson .§ may be compared, " the 

 individual variations are too great, the study of the crania shews 

 typical differences too accentuated for it to be possible to admit 

 the unity. and purity of the Australians." 



ihe occurrence of strongly contrasted complexion.s, copper and 

 *l»iost jet black in the same tribe is exceedingly connaon. Some 

 f ,^^f fairer skins are accompanied by light-coloured hair whether 

 faded or natural. At Beemery Station, between Bourke and 



* Mr. R. Brough Smyth's " The Aborigines of Victoria," Vol. r., p. 15. 



t Daily Life of the Tasmanians, p. lOti. 



li ,, X Native Tribes of South Australia, p. 129. 



J A'- Taplin regarded the Narrinyeri a.= descended from Polynesians 



J^^^Papuans, and may have been the first to propound this special 



§ Les Polynesiens, Vol. i., p. 104. Dr. A. Lesson, Paris, 1890. 



