POLYNESIAN AND MALAYAN. 175 
Whatever the decision may be at which we may arrive in advancing 
knowledge as to the peopling of the littoral of British New Guinea, I do not 
think that it will be necessary to regard Torres Strait as closed to Polynesian 
migration. That view is held by Sidney Ray and expressed in his study of 
the vocabulary material contained in Wollaston’s ‘Pygmies and Papuans.”’ 
Yet from the coasts of that region, far to the west of the Gulf of Papua, and 
for which no one would suggest a settlement from the east, I am finding sources 
of the same Polynesian content in speech. Torres Strait lay invitingly open 
before the fleeing Polynesians; we can see no reason why they should not 
follow that course. I contend that we do find linguistic monuments of their 
passage. 
