362 ON THE ABORIGINES OF THE LOWER MURRAY, 



wondered at that the possession of one of these nets has always 

 been considered to be a sort of fortune to its owner. 



At the present time no more fishing-nets of Wongal fibre are 

 ' manufactured, as the natives barter twine from the settlers 

 instead. 



Between Lake Boga and the Junction of the Murrumbidgee, 

 some sixty or seventy natives were observed encamped in small 

 lots near the river or lagoons, most of them occupied with 

 fishing. We passed several graves, the last near Coghill's 

 Station, of the simple form noticed at Grunbower Creek, whilst a 

 little farther on a regular hut had been erected over the departed 

 native ; and at Hamilton's Station were two graves of this 

 description, in a very good state of preservation. The form of 

 these sepulchres changed again soon, being, instead of bark, 

 covered with grass and reeds ; a fishing net generally enclosing 

 the whole fabric. 



Nearly all the trees along the river-bank showed more or less 

 traces of the presence at one time of a large number of natives : 

 square pieces of bark for drying their opossum skins upon had 

 been cut, often to the height of 20 feet above the ground ; there 

 were also many signs upon these trees where canoes of great 

 dimensions had once been removed, whilst fresh cuttings of this 

 kind rarely occurred. 



It may be of interest to give a short description of the manner 

 in which a canoe is manufactured : 



The tree selected is generally the species of Eucalyptus, known 

 to the settlers as " Flooded Gum" by which the river banks from 

 Swan Hill to the Darling Junction are invariably fringed ; the 

 trunk must be free from branches or knots, and, if possible, 

 slightly bent ; having found a suitable tree of this kind, a large 

 forked branch is cut, and the tree being jammed between, it 

 serves the native as a sort of ladder ; he begins by making two 

 incisions which at first run parallel to each other, and then closing 

 more and more join at the ends, the whole having the form of an 

 elongate shield. The outer bark is then removed sufficiently to 

 permit the introduction of a number of flattened sticks of tough 

 wood, each about a quarter of an inch thick ; these sticks are 

 wedged under the piece of bark, which is to form the canoe ; they 



