Albert Frederick Calvert (1872-1946) wrote The Aborigines of Western Australia (1892) and Granada, Present and Bygone (1908). Any attempt to fathom the depth of mystery which surrounds the history of the Australian Aboriginal must necessarily be-in the main-a failure. The subject is surrounded with difficulty. Captain Dampier was the first Englishman kwn to have made the acquaintance of the Australian natives, whom he calls the poor winking people of New Holland, the miserablest people on earth,and so forth. During the intervening two centuries we have t added much to our kwledge regarding them. They have written language, and are forbidden to speak of the dead: two serious obstacles to research.