180 TRIBAL DIVISIONS OF TTIE 



southerly part of the district the mountains, heavily 

 wooded, nearly approach the shore, and here the blacks 

 must have been mainly dependent on the sea for their 

 food. Further north, towards the mouth of the Huon, 

 at Port Cygnet, North-West Bay, and North Bruny, the 

 country was more open and favourable far game. The 

 banks of the Upper Huon were too heavily timbered 

 to afford much subsistence. The Brnny blacks were 

 numerous, especially on the lightly wooded northern part 

 of the island, which was a favourite hunting-ground. It 

 seems to have been visited by the mainland natives, 

 who crossed the channel in canoes. The natives were 

 numerous on the west bank of the Derwent — at Black- 

 man's Bay, Brown's River, &c. At the latter place 300 

 were seen in 1806. In all this country wallaby, kan- 

 garoo, and opossum would be fairly plentiful. It cannot 

 be determined how far these tribes extended to the 

 northward. They may possibly have occupied the pre- 

 sent site of Hobart, and even further up the western 

 shore of the Derwent, but it is also quite possible that 

 this country was claimed as a hunting-ground by the Big 

 River tribe. There is nothing in the features of the 

 ground to forbid either alternative, and there is no evi- 

 dence to decide the point. Kelly (Evidence, Aboriginal 

 Committee) says that the Southern natives were a finer 

 race than those in the interior, and also that they " took 

 no part ,J with the latter. 



2. Western Tribes. 



" North-West and Western Tribes."— Milligaris 

 Vocabulary. 



The natives on the west of the island must have been 

 mainly confined to the sea coast, where they could draw 

 their support from the sea, the country inland being 

 generally unsuitable for game. Kelly, whose boat voy- 

 age was made at midsummer, 1815, found natives at 

 various places all along the coast, from a point opposite 

 the Maatsuyker Islands off the south coast to beyond 

 Cape Grim in the north-west. From the nature of the 

 country we may conclude that those to the east of South- 

 West Cape belonged to the Western tribes rather than 

 to the Southern group established at Recherche Bay. 

 They were bold enough to cross to the Maatsuykers, 



