116 SI^ELETON POINT. 



arrived shortly after we had discovered this curious 

 specimen of their mode of sepulture ; but although 

 they entertain peculiar opinions upon the especial 

 sanctity of ' the house appointed for all living,* — a 

 sanctity we certainly were not altogether justified 

 in disregarding — they made no offer of remonstrance 

 at the removal of the mortal remains of their dead 

 brother. Whether here, as in the neighbourhood 

 of Freemantle, they regarded us as near kindred of 

 their own under a new guise, and so perhaps might 

 suppose that we took away the dry bones in order 

 to rebuild the frame of which they before formed 

 the support, and to clothe the hideous nakedness of 

 death with the white man's flesh ; or whether, 

 deeming us indeed profane violators of that last 

 resting-place of suffering humanity, which it seems 

 an almost instinctive feeling to regard with reve- 

 rence, they left the office of retribution either to the 

 spirit of the departed, or the more potent "boyl-yas" 

 — to be found upon the testimony of Miago in the 

 wicked north — I know not ; certain it is that under 

 the superintendence of Mr. Bynoe the removal was 

 effected, and that the skeleton itself, presented by 

 that officer to Captain Grey, was by him bestowed 

 upon the Royal College of Surgeons, in whose museum 

 it is now to be found. 



Among the ornithological specimens obtained 

 here was one of the curlew tribe, greatly resembling 

 an ibis, and remarkable for its size. It measured 

 from the extremity of the bill to the tip of the toe 



