188 SUPPLEMENTAL HISTORY OF MAN. 



The continent or island of New Holland, for it 

 will bear either of those appellatives with propriety, 

 is certainly inhabited by various sets of people, as 

 far at least as differences of general appearance, 

 language, and territory constitute variety; but from 

 our hitherto imperfect knowledge of this immense 

 country, we know not to what extent these varieties 

 run, more especially in the interior. 



The natives with whom we are best acquainted, 

 inhabiting the vicinity of Botany Bay, Port Jackson, 

 and Broken Bay, are in general of moderate stature, 

 and ill made. Their limbs, almost universally, are 

 very small and thin. The dwellers near the coast 

 subsist almost exclusively on fish ; those, on the 

 other hand, who live in the woods are almost as ex- 

 clusively carnivorous, but depend entirely for a 

 supply to the uncertain produce of the chase, or 

 rather to the casual surprise of opossums and small 

 animals in the trees. The latter, Colonel Collins 

 informs us, are observed to have longer arms than 

 their compatriots of the coast. 



The features of these people are generally pleas- 

 ing, especially of the women, who are less deformed 

 by the foreign ornament of a bone or reed thrust 

 through the cartilage of the nose or ears. 



Like the south Africans, and other savages, these 

 people of both sexes anoint their bodies all over 

 with oil or grease ; a practice which probably ori- 

 ginated as a protection against the attacks of sting- 

 ing flies, musquitoes, and even the arid air. They 

 also draw lines all over the face and body on par* 



