round there had been annoyed by the blacks, there were few, if any, to
approve of this wholesale poisoning which the sheep owner had undertaken
entirely on his own responsibility."

"I suppose it is due in some measure, at least, to performances of this
sort that the blacks are diminishing in number," Dr. Whitney remarked.

"No doubt that has a good deal to do with the matter," was the reply. "I
don't know of any other instances than this of wholesale poisoning, but
I do know that in a good many instances, black men have been shot down
by whites for the reason that they had speared cattle or committed other
depredations. The blacks have been treated very much the same way as
your American Indians, and generally with as little provocation; but,
beyond all this, it is well known that the number of births among them
every year is considerably less than the number of deaths from natural
causes. Some people believe that the blacks are addicted to infanticide,
and that many of their children are put to death to save the expense of
bringing them up. Understand me, nobody knows positively that this is
the case, but only surmises it."

CHAPTER VIII.

CANNIBAL BLACKS--MELBOURNE AND ITS PECULIARITIES.

"I have heard," said one of the youths, "that Australian blacks are
cannibals. I wonder if that is really so?"

"Perhaps all the tribes in the country are not cannibals, but it is
pretty certain that some of them are. They know that the white man is
prejudiced against eating human flesh, and consequently they conceal
very carefully their performances in this line. In former times they
were not so particular, and there was the most positive proof that they
devoured their enemies killed in battle, and also killed and devoured
some of their own people. They were not such epicures in cannibalism as
the inhabitants of the Feejee Islands formerly were, and did not make as
much ceremony as the Feejeeans over their feasts of human flesh. Some of
the tribes that indulged in the practise have given it up, but the
belief is that those in the interior still adhere to it."

"What do they live upon when they do not eat human flesh?" queried Ned.

"As to that," was the reply, "they live upon pretty nearly everything
they can lay their hands on. They hunt the kangaroo and are fond of its
flesh, and they are also fond of the flesh of cattle and sheep. In fact,
they commit a good many depredations upon the flocks and herds. They
eat s