from each other by Torres Strait to the north and Bass Strait to the south of Australia.
The relative positions of these peoples show that the Papuans, Australians, and Tasmanians must have occupied their respective locations in such manner that Bass Strait stopped the march of the Australians, and Torres Strait of the Papuans.
It is now to be considered whether there are any data from which a fair inference may be drawn as to the former existence of a land bridge between Australia and Tasmania, across which the Tasmanians might pass to the latter country.
There has been much hesitation in accepting any great antiquity for man in Australia. Mr. R. Brough Smyth[1] pointed out, as far back as 1878, that in the hundreds of square miles of alluvial deposits which have been turned over by miners in Victoria very few aboriginal stone hatchets have been found, and those even at inconsiderable depths below the surface. Since that time, some evidence has been forthcoming which may be held to place man in Australia in possibly Pleistocene times.
It may be well, therefore, to bring together those instances which have come under my notice in order that the evidence from these sources may be seen concisely.
Mr. Bonwick[2] records the discovery of a "stone tool" by miners in Ballarat, 22 inches below the surface, in a place which had not been before disturbed. This author, however, according to his practice, gives no reference to his authority.
Dr. A. R. Wallace communicated to me, for the purpose of investigation, the discovery of an axe-head of basalt at Maryborough, in Victoria, in 1855, by Mr. A. C. Swinton, who was at the time engaged in mining.
Mr. Swinton says that he and Mr. M. C. Shore were sinking a shallow shaft on a small tributary, leading into the main lead, when at a depth of about 4 feet from the surface and 1 foot from the bottom, Mr. Shore drove his pick into an axe-head made of basalt. The shaft was sunk
