n entire ignorance of
the habits, customs, and ideas of this people. As far as my own
observation has extended, I have found that particular districts, having
a radius perhaps of from ten to twenty miles, or in other cases varying
according to local circumstances, are considered generally as being the
property and hunting-grounds of the tribes who frequent them. These
districts are again parcelled out among the individual members of the
tribe. Every male has some portion of land, of which he can always point
out the exact boundaries. These properties are subdivided by a father
among his sons during his own lifetime, and descend in almost hereditary
succession. A man can dispose of or barter his land to others; but a
female never inherits, nor has primogeniture among the sons any peculiar
rights or advantages. Tribes can only come into each other's districts by
permission, or invitation, in which case, strangers or visitors are
always well treated. The following extract from Captain Grey's work gives
the result of that gentlemen's observations in Western Australia,
corroborated by Dr. Lang's experience of the practice among the natives
of New South Wales, (vol. ii. p. 232 to 236.)

"TRADITIONAL LAWS RELATIVE TO LANDED PROPERTY.--Landed property does not
belong to a tribe, or to several families, but to a single male; and the
limits of his property are so accurately defined that every native knows
those of his own land, and can point out the various objects which mark
his boundary. I cannot establish the fact and the universality of this
institution better than by the following letter addressed by Dr. Lang,
the Principal of Sydney College, New South Wales, to Dr. Hodgkin, the
zealous advocate of the Aboriginal Races:

"LIVERPOOL, 15th Nov. 1840.

"My Dear Friend,--In reply to the question which you proposed to me some
time ago, in the course of conversation in London, and of which you have
reminded me in the letter I had the pleasure of receiving from you
yesterday, with the pamphlets and letters for America, viz.--'Whether the
Aborigines of the Australian continent have any idea of property in
land,' I beg to answer most decidedly in the affirmative. It is well
known that these Aborigines in no instance cultivate the soil, but
subsist entirely by hunting and fishing, and on the wild roots they find
in certain localities (especially the common fern), with occasionally a
little wild honey; indigenous fruits being excee