470 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION E. 



true of names which the Australian aborigines have applied to the 

 distinctive features of their trackless home. We find their oldest 

 Avords to be totemistic, that is, they have been derived from 

 animals or objects of nature, associated with names of tribes. 

 These totem names are useful in preserving distinctions of con- 

 sanguinity, of great importance in their small communities. Other 

 names refer to boundaries of tracts of country occupied by different 

 tribes or sub-tribes. Some of the latter are descriptive of physical 

 characteristics, some are of vague traditional import, some of them 

 chronicle incidents of travel and war. Many refer to the presence 

 of water, the existence of game, the havmts of reptiles, and the 

 abode of insects. Probably they are all as full of that " child-like 

 poetic fancy that occupies itself with the various aspects of nature, 

 and expresses itself in gesticulations and rude art." as they are 

 full of interest, mystery, and rythmic music to European ears. 

 Our lot it may never be to interpret the hidden meaning wrapped 

 up in them, yet by their preservation we may hope to retain some 

 shreds of knowledge, some fragments of ideas relating to the life 

 liistory of a fast perishing people, whose existence is no fault of 

 their own, and whose presence here is no blame, but whose exter- 

 mination may perchance be counted shame to a civilisation that 

 refuses to recognise them, and thus consigns them to the ignominy 

 of oblivion. It surely is not necessary to close the annals of this 

 inoffensive simple race ; certainly it is not generous of us to destroy 

 their only records, nor is it wise to exclude fronr mental view^ the 

 panorama of their past. 



The following extract from the Government Gazette of October 

 31st, 1839, is so highly commendable in its spirit as to be worth 

 quoting in full : — 



Under the eimsideration that it is due to enterprising men who first explore 

 countries or large districts as much as- possible to preserve the memory of their 

 conduct in the names of the regions they discoA^er, the Goveinor has been 

 pleased to direct that the great coast divisions of the colony shall be hereafter 

 distinguished as follo-ws : — 



1. The territorj'- included between the southern part of the eastern boundary 

 of the province, the Murray, Lake Alexandrina, and the sea to be called Bonneia. 



2. The territory included between the Murray, Lake Alexandrina, Encounter 

 Bay. and St. Vincent and Spencer's Gulfs, excepting Yorke's Peninsula, to be 

 called Sturtia. 



3. Yorke's Peninsula, of course, to retain the name originally given to it by 

 its first discoverer. 



4. The peninsula included between Spencer's Gulf in its whole length and 

 the Southern Ocean from Cape Catastrophe to the western point of Denial Bay 

 to be called Eyria. 



In regard to the minor features of the country to which the natives may have 

 given names, the Governor would take the present opj)ortunity of requesting 

 the assistance of the colonists in discovering and carefully and precisely retain- 

 ing these in all possible cases as most consistent with propriety and beauty of 

 appellation. 



All information on this subject should be communicated in precise terms to 

 the Surveyor- General, M'ho will cause memoranda to be made of it and native 

 names, when clearly proved to be correct, to be inserted in the public maps. 



