A naturalist in Tasmania / by Geoffrey Smith.

  • Smith, Geoffrey, 1881-1916.
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A naturalist in Tasmania / by Geoffrey Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    also made the first systematic observations on the natural productions of the country and its native inhabitants. It is impossible not to notice the glamour and romance which La Billardiere and, later, Peron love to throw round the dubious figures of the aborigines; but it is also clear that their intense predisposition to believe in primitive man helped them a long way towards gaining the confidence and arousing the interested curiosity of the natives. It is also of importance to note that not only La Billardiere and Peron, but also the less sentimental testimony of Cook, all bear witness to the mild characteristics of the Tasmanians before they had come into contact with the fatal influence of civilization. La Billar- diere ^ gives the following picturesque account of the native women obtaining food:— They each took a basket, and were followed by their daughters, who did the same. Getting on the rocks that projected into the sea they plunged from them to the bottom in search of shell-fish. When they had been down some time we became very uneasy on their account; for where they had dived were sea-weeds of great length, among which we observed the Fucus pyriferus, and we feared they might have been entangled in these so as to be unable to regain the surface again. At length, however, they appeared, and convinced us that they were capable of remaining under w^ater twice as long as our ablest divers. An instant was sufficient for them to take breath, and then they dived again. This they did repeatedly until their baskets were nearly ^ Quoted from Fenton’s History oj Tasmania. B 2
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