AUSTRALIA. 107 



The number of the aborigines is very small in proportion to the 

 extent of territory which they occupy. It cannot be rated higher 

 than two hundred thousand for the whole of Australia. Some esti- 

 mates reduce it as low as seventy-five thousand. These calculations, 

 of course, suppose that the unexplored region does not differ mate- 

 rially, as respects the density of the population, from that which is 

 known. 



PHYSICAL TRAITS. 



The natives of Australia are of the middle height, few of the men 

 being above six or under five feet. They are slender in make, with 

 long arms and legs, and when in good condition, their forms are 

 pretty well proportioned. Usually, however, their wandering life, irre- 

 gular habits, and bad food keep them extremely meagre, and as this 

 thinness is accompanied by a protuberance of the abdomen, it gives 

 to their figures a distorted and hardly human appearance. The cast 

 of the face is a medium between the African and the Malay types. 

 The forehead is narrow, sometimes retreating, but often high and 

 prominent ; the eyes are small, black, and deep-set ; the nose is much 

 depressed at the upper part between the eyes, and widened at the 

 base, but with this, it frequently has an aquiline outline. The cheek- 

 bones are prominent. The mouth is large, with thick lips and strong 

 well-set teeth. The jaws project, but the chin is frequently retracted. 

 The head, which is very large, with a skull of unusual thickness, is 

 placed upon a short and small neck. Their colour is a dark chocolate 

 or reddish-black, like that of the Guinea negro, but varying in shade 

 so much that individuals of pure blood are sometimes as light- 

 coloured as mulattoes. That which distinguishes them most decidedly 

 from other dark-skinned races is their hair, which is neither woolly, 

 like that of the Africans and Melanesians, nor frizzled like that of the 

 Feejeeans, nor coarse, stiff, and curling, as with the Malays. It is 

 long, fine, and wavy like that of Europeans. When neglected, it is 

 apt, of course, to become bushy and matted, but when proper care is 

 taken of it, it appears as we have described. It is sometimes of a 

 glossy black, but the most common hue is a deep brown. Most of 

 the natives have thick beards, and their skins are more hairy than 

 those of whites. 



