Special Issue of "Discovery”
p. 61 · Read in the full issue
Pacific Data
HPHE issue of Discovery of January, 1936, is described as an “Australian and Pacific number”; and among the articles which it contains are “Pitcairn Island” —in which is told once again the amazing story of the mutiny on the Bounty and its sequel; “The Tragedy of the Morioris” —that strange remnant of a race that apparently was displaced by the New Zealand Maoris and whiah found a refuge in the bleak and lonely Chathams; “The Natives of Tasmania”— in which an account is given of an equally mysterious racial remnant (a sur vival perhaps of one of the very first human migrations) which came to an end in 1876; “The Papuan Element in the Pacific”; and “Mummies in New Guinea”.
In the latter article some rather ridicu lous statements are made —especially the suggestion that there is some resem blance between these human remains and the mummies found in ancient Egypt.
As has previously been pointed out in this journal, there is not the slightest evi dence that these remains are “mummies” in the Egyptian sense of the term —they merely are the bodies of the New Guinea natives which have been preserved in one of the various ways that are well known to the Melanesians, and evidently the process of preservation was aided by the conditions in the cave in which the remains were found. The writer of the article is Rev. G. F. Cox, who is described as “the archaeological correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald, and ranks among the foremost observers of the progress of archaeology in Australasia.”
Discovery is a monthly journal pub lished in London by Messrs. Benn Brothers Limited. It has been in exist ence since 1919, and it is devoted to the dissemination of scientific knowledge, and especially geographical knowledge.
Rev. and Mrs. T. N. Deller arrived in Sydney from Fiji by the Monterey on January 27. For 14 years Mr. Deller has been a devoted worker for the Methodist Mission at Bau, and he has now retired from service in Fiji. He and his wife will shortly take up residence in Queens land.