1903.] MATHEWS—ABORIGINAL LANGUAGES. 179 
There have been two determinations made of the parallax of this 
star ; the first determination was by the heliometer by Gill in 1882, 
and the second was by micrometric measures by Hallin 1884. The 
results were : 
Gill, o//,16 19.6 light years, 
Hall, 0//,22 14.6 light years. 
If we assume the ‘mean of these, or 0”.19, as the most probable 
value, the dimensions of the orbit and the combined mass of the 
two components can readily be determined. We find that the sum 
of the masses of the two components is nine-tenths the mass of our 
sun, and that the semi-major axis of the true orbit is 23.5 times 
the distance from the earth to the sun. The orbit is thus larger 
than the orbit of Uranus, but inferior to that of Neptune. 
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, PHILADELPHIA. 
SOME ABORIGINAL LANGUAGES OF QUEENSLAND 
AND VICTORIA. 
BY R. H. MATHEWS, L.S., 
MEMB. ASSOC. ETRAN. SOC. D’'ANTHROP. DE PARIS. 
(Read October 3, 1902.) 
Last year I contributed to this Society a short description of the 
Gundungurra, one of the native tongues of New South Wales. In 
the following pages it is proposed to furnish the outlines of the 
grammatical structure of some aboriginal languages spoken by the 
native tribes of Queensland and Victoria. 
The method of spelling adopted is that recommended by the 
Royal Geographical Society of London, with the following qualifi- 
cations : 
As far as possible vowels are unmarked, but in some instances 
the long sound of a, e, and u are indicated thus, 4, é, i. Ina few 
cases, to avoid ambiguity of pronunciation, the short sound of u is 
thus represented, wu. 
G is hard in all cases. R has a rough, trilled sound, as in 
‘‘hurrah !’? W always commences a syllable or word. Y at the 
beginning of a word or syllable has its ordinary consonant value. _ 
The sound of the Spanish fi often occurs; at the beginning of a 
