434 .1. a. stone: 



(Muymer), and the various lake banks near by, and on to the 

 banks of the Little Murray (Barne Mille). This camping 

 ground was originally occupied by a tribe called Buck (Cat- 

 fish), Language " Burapace," which had become extinct so long 

 ago as to hav^ left no trace except the tradition. 



In this district there are hundreds of their cooking ovens 

 or middens, some of them of very large extent, and contain- 

 ing hundreds of yards of burnt earth and ashes, and freely 

 mixed with it are the remains of mussel shells and bones, with 

 a very occasional chisel, tomahawk or grinding stone ; and in 

 rare instances an aboriginal skeleton has been found when 

 these ovens have been ploughed over or removed, but I do not 

 think that the practice of burying a deceased member of the 

 tribe in an oven was often resorted to. 



It is a thousand pities that these interesting and child-like 

 people have had to go down and out ; but thei-e was no help 

 for it — 'the vices and ways of living of the white man too easily 

 corrupted the simple natures of the native inhabitants of the 

 soil, and the result will be that in a very few years there will 

 be no full-blooded Victorian aboriginal livino-. The law 

 of " the survival of the fittest '' has been ruthlessly obeyed in 

 their case. It is not an easy task to get behind the aboriginal 

 mind and to gain his entire confidence ; he has an inveterate 

 hatred of being laughed at, and is very susiDicious of one's 

 interest, but having gained his confidence it becomes surpris- 

 ing to find the vast knowledge possessed of the flora and fauna 

 of his surroundings, and the tales and sometimes weird tradi- 

 tions of his tribe. 



I have always met with courtesy and gentleness from these 

 poor maligned folk, and have not the slightest hesitation in 

 saying that any " native outrage ' has always owed its origin 

 in the misdeeds of the invaders. One white man may have had 

 to suffer for another's fault, but the white man has always 

 been at fault in the first place. 



