ntably scanty; the list consisting of:

1. A short vocabulary from the Solomon Isles.
2. Short ones from Mallicollo.
3. The same from Tanna.
4. Shorter ones still from Erromanga and
5. Annatom.
6. Cook's New Caledonian Vocabulary.
7. La Billardiere's ditto.

The collation of these with the Louisiade has led me to a fact which I
little expected. As far as the very scanty data go, they supply the
closest resemblance to the Louisiade dialects, from the two New
Caledonian vocabularies. Now New Caledonia was noticed in the Appendix to
the Voyage of the Fly (volume 2 page 318) as apparently having closer
philological affinities with Van Diemen's Land, than that country had
with Australia; an apparent fact which induced me to write as follows: "A
proposition concerning the Tasmanian language exhibits an impression,
rather than a deliberate opinion. Should it, however, be confirmed by
future researches, it will at once explain the points of physical
contrast between the Tasmanian tribes and those of Australia that have so
often been insisted on. It is this--that the affinities of language
between the Tasmanian and the New Caledonian are stronger than those
between the Australian and Tasmanian. This indicates that the stream of
population for Van Diemen's Land ran ROUND Australia, rather than across
it." Be this as it may, the remark, with our present scanty matcrials,
is, at best, but a suggestion--a suggestion, however, which would account
for the physical appearance of the Tasmanian being more New Caledonian
than Australian.

The chief point of resemblance between the Louisiade and the New
Caledonian is taken from the numerals. In each system there is a prefix,
and in each that prefix begins with a labial letter--indeed the wa of New
Caledonia and the pahi of Louisiade seem to be the same roots.

1.
Brierly Island : paihe-tia.
Cook's New Caledonia : wa-geeaing.
La Billardiere's New Caledonia : oua-nait.

2.
Brierly Island : pahi-wo.
Cook's New Caledonia : wa-roo.
La Billardiere's New Caledonia : oua-dou.

3.
Brierly Island : paihe-tuan.
Cook's New Caledonia : wa-teen.
La Billardiere's New Caledonia : oua-tguien.

4.
Brierly Island : paihe-pak.
Cook's New Caledonia : wa-mbaeek.
La Billardiere's New Caledonia : oua-tbait.

5.
Brierly Island : paihe-lima.
Cook's New Caledonia : wa-nnim.
La Billardiere's New Caledonia : oua-nnaim.

6.
Brierly Island : paihe-wona.
Cook's New Caledonia : wa-nnim-geeek.
La