Neither the extent nor the physical features of our Globe are such as imply that the spread of population over its surface must necessarily have been the work of many ages. To traverse the habitable earth from the Southern extremity of Africa to the North of Asia, and thence to the extreme Southern point of the American continent, is a task which would require only a small fraction of one man’s life! And in the first ages of the Race, Man was probably a Nomade, a Wanderer! It may be inferred, therefore, that in the early ages of the world the diffusion of population was very rapid in the warmer latitudes, while towards the North it was obstructed rather by climate than by any other cause. As population became more dense in the more favoured regions, weaker tribes, it may be surmised, were gradually driven into the steppes of Asia and the wilds of Siberia, whence they may be supposed to have penetrated into Europe on the one hand, and across Behring’s Straits into America on the other. With the exception of America, all the great Continents are connected together by districts easily traversed by Man; and Behring’s Strait, which is interposed between America and the North-east of Asia, might be passed in the canoes of some of the most barbarous tribes with which we are acquainted. The peopling of Islands is a subject that has been discussed very satisfactorily by Dr. Prichard, and after him by Mr. Lyell. Their conclusion is, that the occasional drifting of canoes by storms and currents, is sufficient to account for the existence of Human population in the most remote islands, as is proved by facts related by Kotzebue and others. Several reasons have however been suggested in the following pages, for the conclusion that Australia is a recently peopled country.