settlement of the island, -which may have been made when it 

 was much more accessible than now, no further communication 

 took place with the mainland. It is hardly fair to compare the 

 weapons of the Tasmanian with those of the Australian, and from 

 their dissimilarity to deduce absence of racial affinity in the owners, 

 for the isolation of the Tasmanians reduced them to dependence 

 for advancement on a very limited number of minds, and tliey may 

 have made little or no progress after they crossed Bass Strait, 

 whereas their kin on the mainland were overwhelmed hy a race 

 bringing with them superior art, which once introduced, only faint 

 traces of the work of the primitive inhabitants might be expected 

 to linger on. It is futile to ask, whether all the AustraliMi 

 implements are represented in Tasmania ? If the implements of 

 Tasmania be also found in Australia, although of improved 

 manufacture, that should be sutftcient to justify the theory pro- 

 pounded here in so far as the argument from such belongings has 

 any force. The fact that certain weapons of the continental 

 natives are absent from the island forms part of Mr. E. M. Curr's 

 reasons for supposing that the Tasmanians were not of Australian 

 descent, a method of reasoning which would lead inevitably to 

 the conclusion that some of the Australian tribes were not of 



For instance, neither the siiield nor boomerang were kiwwn to 



, . . ,, a people on the mainland. I 



. Currsown work* we read that among the Wonunda Meenii: 



and the: 



*"!^fKi-?^'^'' ^•''"'^ ^^*'^'' "^^"^'^^^ ^"d b^merangs a 



■"'- weapons are unadorned with either carving or colouring." 



Je also resembles the Tasmanians in being without the 



>ssage stick. It is true that for arms the Tasmanian had 



am spear and club but these are universal in Australia 



[lake may be ascribed to the 



influx of a more advanced 



populous. 



The club of the Tasmani 



people and to the greater scope 







hold for the hand, 

 the 



rasped was rougldy notched .so as to afford a secure 

 ould apply equally v 



^ , --.. "-^« .jy the blacks in southern 



Queensland which was entirely (' ■• - 



this locality particularly, because I have accurate 

 the fact stated, and not because the plain weapon 

 use there. ^ ^ 



Mr. Curr does 

 ■a tomahawk or 



• The Australian Kace, Vol. '. 



