nal appearance and customs,
if not their dialects, shew this. From what race they originally sprang
it is more difficult to determine, for there is not one of the great
families into which the human race has been divided, with which they may
properly be classed. With such features as they generally possess, in the
flattened nose, thick lip, and overhanging brow, one can hardly fancy
that they would be good looking, but I certainly have seen very good
looking men amongst them--I may say tribes, indeed, on the Darling for
instance, and on the Murrumbidgee, (see page 53, vol. ii. of my last
work.) The men on Cooper's Creek were fine rather than handsome.
Generally speaking, the natives have beautiful teeth, and their eye,
though deep sunk, is full of fire. Although their muscular development is
bad, they must have a very remarkable strength of sinew, or they could
not otherwise raise themselves, as they do, on so slender a footing in
climbing up the trees, and in many other occupations. I have read in
several authors that the natives of Australia have woolly hair. This is a
mistake; their hair is as fine and as curly as that of an European, but
its natural beauty is destroyed by filth and neglect. Nothing can prove
its strength more than the growth of their beards, which project from
their chins, and are exceedingly stiff.

In many places the natives have but a scanty and precarious subsistence,
which may in some measure account for the paucity of their numbers in
some localities. In many parts of the country in which I have been I feel
satisfied they can seldom procure animal food, as they would not
otherwise resort to the use of some things which no time could, I should
imagine, make palateable. Their dexterity at the chase is very great,
although in hunting the kangaroo they become so nervous that they
frequently miss their mark. I have seen them sink under water and bring
up a fish writhing on the short spear they use on such occasions, which
they have struck either in the forehead, or under the lateral fin, with
unerring precision. Still some of our people come pretty close to them in
many of their exercises of the chase, and the young settlers on the
Murray very often put them to the blush. At the head of them is Mr.
Scott, Mr. Eyre's companion, who has now succeeded him in the post at
Moorundi. There is not a native on the river so expert in throwing the
spear, in taking kangaroo or fish, or in the canoe, as he is. H