ing facts. All the camping grounds appear to be of com- 

 pajrativcly recent age, none ot those I have hitherto visited 

 gave me the impression as if it had been used for a very 

 lengthy period. Anybody who has seen the sites of old 

 inhabited places in India, Persia, or Egypt knows the 

 enormous amount of refuse that collected there as the 

 waste of past generations. However simple the wants of 

 our Aborigines may have been, there was always a certain 

 quantity of waste, and this must have, in the com-se of 

 time, acciunulated, forming a large heap of refuse on the 

 camping grounds. But such a layer of refuse is entirely 

 absent in the camping grounds. The most natural ex- 

 planation is. to assume that the camping grounds were 

 used for a short time only, and constantly shifted. How- 

 ever tempting this view may be, there is a serious objec- 

 tion to it. Three things were absolutely essential for a 

 camping ground : Fresh water, a plentiful supply of 

 food, and a warm soil permeable to water- 

 As the Aborigines possessed no vessels whatsoever in 

 which to carry any water, except occasionally in a shell, 

 the nearness of fresh water was absolutely indispensable 

 for a camping ground. The nearness of food was not so 

 necessary; it could be carried in baskets for any 

 reasona.ble distance, if necessary, and as long 

 as the supply was plentiful in the neigh- 

 bourhood, any place near fresh water was suitable, 

 provided it fulfilled the third condition. This is, perhaps, 

 the most cuiicius of all. A little observation proves that aL 

 most all camping grounds were situated on sandy soil. If 

 a small island of sand occure in a large area of argillace- 

 ous soil, we may be almost certain to find a large number 

 of implements on that spot, even if not a single specimen 

 is found all around it. I had this proved over and over 

 again by actual observation, and in hunting up new sites 

 I always find out the sandy places, and I am rarely dis- 

 appointed. 



The Aborigines neither camped on rocky, nor on heavy 

 clayey soil, and the reason for this is obvious- Kocky 

 ground can never be considered as comfortable, argillaceous 

 soil becomes slushy in the rain ; but the sandy soil is soft, 

 •warm, and the rain water soon disappears and leaves it 

 dry. I do not say for a moment that there were no excep- 

 tions to this rule, but taken a supply of fresh water and 

 plenty of food, the Aborigines always selected the sandy 

 soil in preference to any other for their camping sites. 



Now, it is only fair to assume, that if the Aborigines 

 never dwelt for any length of time at any of these places, 

 but always shifted to new ground after a time, the avail- 

 able localities must eventually become exhausted. Former 



