The Aborigines 201 



Station. This language is exceedingly interest- 

 ing, on account of its remarkable inflections and 

 grammatical complications, an extremely limited 

 vocabulary of root words being most ingeniously 

 employed to serve all the purposes of a spoken 

 language. Dr. Roth declares it to be identical 

 with the dialect of which Captain Cook made a 

 vocabulary in the year 1770, since which time the 

 spoken language appears to have undergone few, 

 if any, alterations. 



Interesting as the black-fellow undoubtedly is 

 while he remains in his wild condition, when he 

 comes into close contact with the white man he 

 presents a spectacle that is pitiable and pathetic. 

 A visit to one of the aboriginal reservations will 

 convince any inquirer that, with the very best in- 

 tentions, the Australian Governments are able to 

 do but little for those people. Houses built to 

 shelter them are kept in a bare and sordid state, 

 and the uncultivated state of the good lands they 

 possess shows that it is impossible to instil into 

 them even the rudiments of agriculture. The 

 large proportion of half-caste children, while it is 

 a reproach to the whites, is also eloquent of the 

 absence of any vestige of morality in either black 

 man or woman. Neither the stringency of laws, 

 nor the vigilance of paid officials serves to protect 

 the black race from itself; for it dates back to an 

 era before the stone age, and cannot be in any 

 way reconciled with the conditions of to-day. 



The skill of the aboriginal as a tracker has 



