100 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



for the benefit of those of your members who are hair collectors, 

 that Cossack is a splendid field for them, as amongst its limited 

 population they will meet with representatives from almost every 

 country, from the coal-black nigger to the pure white, with all the 

 intermediate colours. Cossack stands pretty much in the same 

 position to Roebourne, the capital of the north-west, as Port 

 Melbourne does to Vtelbourne, but the distance is greater, being 

 about eight miles The two places are connected by a horse 

 tramway, and although this is not equal to the Victorian cable 

 trams, it is nevertheless very useful for the conveyance of both 

 goods and passengers, and is consequently appreciated by the 

 residents. No sooner had I landed than I made my first 

 acquaintance with the natives, and, as a truthful writer, I am 

 compelled to sta e that each succeeding year of the fifteen years' 

 experience I had of them has only tended to more and more 

 confirm my belief that for dirt and dirty habits they carry the 

 palm over the natives of any other country, be they black or 

 white. Their habits may i)e summarised in the one word — filthy ; 

 many of them, indeed, will not i)ear description. They wear no 

 clothing, except occasionally in the town, when they conform to 

 a regulation requiring them to have at least a piece of blanket 

 round the loins ; but this absence of clothing is not surprising, as 

 the climate is one of the hottest imaginable, rivalling tliat cele- 

 brated spot to which the yentleraan who had departed thence to 

 the regions below returned for his blankets, complaining 

 of them being much colder than what he had been 

 accustomed to. Even with the whites it is more generally 

 the custom to sleep outside than indoors, and the ordinary dress 

 rarely consists of more ihan hat. shirt, trousers, and boots; and 

 in winter but little additional clothing is required. Overcoats 

 are things almost unknown, and to anyone contemplating settling 

 there I would say, don't lay in a stock of them. The native 

 men are fairly presentable so far as stature is concerned, some 

 few being over six feet high, but the features are of the 

 unmistakeable Australian type. The women are less prepossess- 

 ing, even when young, and as they become older their appear- 

 ance changes much for the worse — in fact, they grow extremely 

 ugly, not to say hideous. The hair of both sexes is of the usual 

 stringy black and they have those flat noses, thick lips, and 

 black, liquid eyes with which you are, no doubt, all familiar, 

 from seeing the photographs in your picture gallery and in many 

 of the photographers' shops in Melbourne. They move about in 

 camps, each camp being what may be considered a different 

 tribe, and intermarriage in any one tribe is not allowed. The 

 latter is, in consequence, as nearly as I can explain it, of all of 

 one tribe being recognised as brothers and sisters, and, no doubt, 

 was originated with the object of preventing any close family 



