Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/59

I Ainus of Japan, the Maoutze of China, and perhaps the Todas of India.

This stock might have given the characters of the hair to the otherwise negroid primitive inhabitants of Australia, and also certain peculiarities of feature which are occasionally observed, and which are evidently and certainly not negroid in character.

I have said before, and desire to repeat, that the conclusions to which I have been led as to the origin of the Tasmanians and Australians necessarily demand a vast antiquity on the Australian continent for the former and a very long period of at least prehistoric time for the latter.

In dealing with the origin of the aborigines of Tasmania and Australia I have attempted the solution of a most difficult problem. I have looked at the questions arising out of it from more than one standpoint, and I have thereby been led to conclusions which contradict the views held and enunciated by fellow-workers whose opinions are deserving of respectful consideration.

All that I claim is, that I have offered what seems to me to be a reasonably probable tentative hypothesis, based upon known facts.

My views will be accepted or rejected by competent authorities according as they stand the test of criticism, of time, and of the accumulation of further knowledge.

The conclusions to which this inquiry has led me may be doubtless modified by increased knowledge of new facts; but I venture to think, with some confidence, that the antiquity of occupation which I have postulated for the aborigines of both Australia and Tasmania in this continent will not be lessened.