EXPLORING IN AUSTRALIA.

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14475, 2 October 1912, Page 9

EXPLORING IN AUSTRALIA.

SWEDISH SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION. United Presa Association—By Electric Telegraph— Copyright SYDNEY, October 1. Doctor Myoberg, the Swedish explorer who had charge of the recent scientific research expedition into West Australia, proceeds shortly to Queensland to continue his investigations. He intends to study especially the rain and the forests, where the last trace of Malayan vegetation is. Dr. Myoberg considers the aborigines the only primitive Caucasian race living, and says they have been here for thousands of years. Some of. the specimens secured by him in the north-west of Australia are entirely new to science, including a. small rodent, some birds, and numerous insects.

Dr. Eric Myoberg is a young Swedish scientist, who, in June, 1910, headed an exploring expedition into the wilds of north-west Australia under the direction of the Swedish Government, and assisted materially by tlie Government of West Australia. Dr Myoberg spent about 12 months inland, and about two months by the sjja (says the "Sydney Morning Herald"). His investigations of native customs and superst.tions were extensive and peculiar, and were indeed carried so far that it is a matter for surprise that he ever left the country in safety. "I will take care never to go back there again," he declares, and with good reason. Camera in hand, he viola ted in the cause of science their most intimate mysteries. One photograph is surely unique—a midnight corroboree, taken by means o_ a magnesium wire, in the heart of the wilds, and surrounded by savages wh-> deeply resented his presence, and suspected his motives. Despite their wishes, almost in defiance of their threats, he watched their curious burial ceremonies—tho corpse laid ..in a plat"form in a treo-top, tho circie of white stones placed beneath to discover the identity of the supposed murderer. The stones aro each named after one of the dead man's acquaintances in life. The first upon whicli the decaying corpso above drops, like the quality of mercy, naturally establishes the guilt of the individual represented. •At the imminent risk of bis life, the doctor abstracted the skeletons from their eyries, as well as from various hiding-places, whither the blacks had conveyed them in expectation of his coming. Concerning the aborigines, Dr. Myoberg said it was now generally believed that they were a primitive branch __ the Caucasian type, from wh'ch the European races descended. Tho fact that their hair is wavy, as opposed to the cylindrical hair of the Mongol, or the "kinky" wool of the African —a peculiarity shared only by the Caucasian races—was in itself almost conclusive. The Australian aboriginal wa_ at the same stage of development as had boon the man of Neanderthal, who lived in Europe from 50 to 100 thousand years ago.