STRANGE and unique as are the plants and animals of 

 Australia, yet nothing definite can be affirmed of its 

 native human inhabitants. They are a peculiar people, sepa- 

 rated by a wide remove from the Papuans, the Malays and 

 the Negro. Of a dark, coffee-brown complexion, rather 

 than actually black, the Australian is but little inferior to 

 the average European in height, but is altogether of a much 

 slimmer and feebler build, his limbs, particularly, being very 

 lean and destitute of calves, a defect which is a peculiarity of 

 the darker races of man. His head is long and narrow, doli- 

 chocephalic in type, with a low brow, prominent just above 

 the orbital regions, but receding thence in a very marked 

 degree. The nose, proceeding from a comparatively narrow 

 base, broadens outwardly to a somewhat squat end, the eyes 

 on each side of its attenuated root appearing drawn together. 

 His face bulges into high cheek bones ; his mouth is large 

 and grotesque, the jaw-bone contracted, the upper jaw pro- 

 jecting over the lower, but with fine, white teeth ; the chin cut 

 away, and his ears slightly pricked forward. Not only the 

 head and face, but the entire body as well, is covered with a 

 profusion of hair, which, when freed of its enclogging dirt 

 and oil, is soft and glossy. Like most savage peoples, the 

 effluvium of his skin, offensive as it naturally is, is very 

 much exaggerated by the fish-oil he uses in the anointment 

 of his person. 



Almost exclusively directed on the means of procuring 

 sustenance, the intellect of the Australian operates wholly 

 within the range of the rudest bodily senses. But inside 



