June 22, 1857.] GREGORY'S NORTH AUSTRALIAN EXPEDITION. 499 



months of tlie year, the dryness of the atmosphere seems to counter- 

 act that "unhealthiness which is usnally inseparable from these 

 latitudes. 



64. The country around the Gulf does not oifer any great induce- 

 ment to the settler, being devoid of good harbours ; the rivers are 

 only accessible for small vessels, while the available country bears 

 but small proportion to that which is utterly worthless. Its relative 

 position causes its climate to participate in some degree with that of 

 the Australian interior, and appears to be subject to drought. 



65. On the eastern coast a large proportion of good country exists 

 along the course of the Burdekin River and its tributaries. It forms 

 a continuation of the tract which extends north from Moreton Bay, 

 over which the stations are extending with such rapidity, that a few 

 years will probably suffice for the settlement of the country to lati- 

 tude 18^ 



66. Judging from the character of the vegetation, the climate of 

 this part of Australia is cooler and more humid than that of the Gulf 

 or N.W. Coast ; the rainy season is not confined to any particular 

 period of the year, being situated between the intertropical and 

 extratropical climates, the wet season of the former occurring from 

 November to March, and the latter from May to September. 



67. With reference to the aborigines of Northern Australia, I 

 have been able to collect little information. Except in the im- 

 mediate vicinity of the sea coast at the mouth of the Victoria, and 

 on the southern shores of the Gulf of Carpentaria, their numbers are 

 apparently small, though the recent traces in every part of the 

 country visited, showed them to be diffused over the whole, and small 

 parties were often seen. 



68. Except on the few occasions detailed in the journal, our inter- 

 views were of a friendly nature, though twenty-six years' constant 

 intercourse with the aboriginal Australians has convinced me how 

 little their professions are to be relied on ; and I therefore never 

 relaxed those precautionary measures which, though they somewhat 

 interfered with the collection of information regarding their habits 

 and customs, has, with one exception, enabled us to avoid collision 

 in which life had been unavoidably sacrificed. 



69. In no part did I observe any marked difference in race or form 

 of weapons from the aborigines of the western coast, except such 

 variations in the latter as were requisite from the difference of the 

 materials from which they were constructed. The language differed 

 from either that of Moreton Bay or Western Australia. Circumcision, 

 and the removal of the front teeth, are practised by some of the 

 tribes, but others did not practise either rite. 



