be, each would retain, in a greater
or less degree, some of the language, habits, or customs of the original
division; but such points of resemblance would naturally again undergo
many changes or modifications, in proportion to the time, distance, or
isolated character of the separation. If we look at the progress of any
two parties of natives, branching off upon different rivers, and trace
them, either upwards or downwards, we shall find, that the further they
went, the more isolated they would become, and the less likely to come
again in contact with each other, or with the original division from
which they separated. We may, therefore, naturally expect a much greater
variety of dialects or customs in a country that is much intersected by
rivers, or ranges, or by any features that tend to produce the isolating
effect that I have described, than in one whose character has no such
tendency; and this in reality we find to be the case. In Western and
South-western Australia, as far as the commencement of the Great Bight,
the features and character of the country appear to be but little
diversified, and here, accordingly, we find the language of the natives
radically the same, and their weapons, customs, and ceremonies very
similar throughout its whole extent; but if, on the other hand, we turn
to Eastern, South-eastern, and part of Southern Australia, we find the
dialects, customs, and weapons of the inhabitants, almost as different as
the country itself is varied by the intersection of ranges and rivers.

The division I have supposed as taking a south-easterly course from the
Gulf of Carpentaria, would appear early to have lost the rite of
circumcision; but to have retained among some of its branches, the
practice of knocking out the front teeth of the upper jaw. Thus, those
who made their way to Port Jackson and to Hunter's River, and to some of
the southern parts of New South Wales, still retained the practice of
knocking out one of the front teeth at the age of puberty; but at
Keppel's, Harvey's, and Glass-House bays, on the north-east coast, at
Twofold bay on the south-east, at Port Phillip on the south, and upon the
rivers Darling and Murray, of the interior, no such rite is practised. It
is clear, therefore, that when the continent was first peopled, the
natives of Sydney or Hunter's River could not have come round the
north-east coast by Keppel's or Harvey's bays, and retained a ceremony
that is there lost; neither