**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][1]

**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.


  [1]: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/37065/37065-h/37065-h.htm