Question

What is the reference of der and seiner as occurring in this passage from Freud's Totem and Taboo*; or, if the question cannot be answered to satisfaction, do we perhaps have a corrupted copy of the passage?

Aus äußeren wie aus inneren Gründen wähle ich für diese Vergleichung jene Völkerstämme, die von den Ethnographen als die zurückgebliebensten, armseligsten Wilden beschrieben worden sind, die Ureinwohner{pl} des jüngsten Kontinents{m}, Australien{n}, der uns auch in seiner Fauna soviel Archaisches, anderswo Untergegangenes, bewahrt hat.

*Full text is found here

My Thoughts

I have marked the number or gender of potential antecedents.

On der. Since Kontinents is the only masculine, der presumably refers to it? However, wouldn't it be more natural to start the relative clause with das as referring to Australien since it is closer and more definite in meaning?

On seiner. I would have expected seiner to refer to the same thing that the relative pronoun did, but that seems impossible because seiner after a dative in would be a reference to a feminine noun. But the only feminine noun in the whole sentence is Vergleichung, which makes no sense. Vergleichung does not have fauna!

In sum I would have liked to see das and seinem.

I am beginning to think that I might have a bad copy of the text.

Question Restated

Please let me know if there is a way to make grammatical sense of the passage. If I have a bad copy, please let me know what the book says on a good copy. Thanks.

Question

What is the reference of der and seiner as occurring in this passage from Freud's Totem and Taboo*; or, if the question cannot be answered to satisfaction, do we perhaps have a corrupted copy of the passage?

Aus äußeren wie aus inneren Gründen wähle ich für diese Vergleichung jene Völkerstämme, die von den Ethnographen als die zurückgebliebensten, armseligsten Wilden beschrieben worden sind, die Ureinwohner{pl} des jüngsten Kontinents{m}, Australien{n}, der uns auch in seiner Fauna soviel Archaisches, anderswo Untergegangenes, bewahrt hat.

*Full text is found here

My Thoughts

I have marked the number or gender of potential antecedents.

On der. Since Kontinents is the only masculine, der presumably refers to it? However, wouldn't it be more natural to start the relative clause with das as referring to Australien since it is closer and more definite in meaning?

On seiner. I would have expected seiner to refer to the same thing that the relative pronoun did, but that seems impossible because seiner after a dative in would be a reference to a feminine noun. But the only feminine noun in the whole sentence is Vergleichung, which makes no sense. Vergleichung does not have fauna!

In sum I would have liked to see das and seinem.

I am beginning to think that I might have a bad copy of the text.

Question Restated

Please let me know if there is a way to make grammatical sense of the passage. If I have a bad copy, please let me know what the book says on a good copy.