potatoes 011 the same field, which were three inches in diameter 

 notwithstanding that no rain had fallen between the sowing 

 of the seed and raising of the crop. These results, it was said, 

 were owing to the natural moisture, and were not due to 

 irrigation. 



The Assistant Secretary laid upon the table specimens of a 

 •substance found on Kangaroo Island, and supposed by tbe 

 discoverers to be coal, or an indication of coal. It was not 

 claimed that the existence of this substance on the island was 

 a new discovery, but the men stated that they had found the 

 place whence it originated in a spring within a cave on the 

 south coast. In his opinion the substance was a form of 

 petroleum. 



The Ho:n\ Secretary read a paper by Mr. J. D. AVoods on 

 " The Aborigines of South Australia." (See p. 81) 



A desultory sort of discussion followed, regret being 

 generally expressed that Mr. Woods was not present to supply 

 information upon several matters not touched upon in the 

 paper. 



Mr. R. I>'gleby said it appeared to him that there was no 

 accumulation of wealth among the aboriginals, and yet Mr. 

 Woods spoke of the men "buying" their wives. He could 

 scarcely see what the exchange could be. Another matter on 

 which he should like to have heard something was in reference 

 to the custom of some of the blacks of taking a cast of the head 

 of a corpse and allowing it to remain on for some time. 



Mr. A. Moli^etjx said he thought it was a practice observed 

 by the female relatives of the deceased, who plastered mud 

 upon their heads and let it remain until it became thoroughly 

 set. They then placed it on the grave of the deceased. He 

 arrived in the colony in 1839, and had seen a great deal of the 

 habits and customs of the blacks. He remembered once seeing 

 the funeral of one of their men, whom they called King John. 

 After death a number of the tribe put him on a lot of sticks, 

 and after smoking him for a considerable time carried him 

 about for nearly a fortnight before the obsequies were finally 

 concluded. During the time there were great lamentations, 

 the " gins" especially making a fearful noise and evincing 

 great distress. Special honor, he thought, was shown to John 

 •on account of his position, because he always found that the 

 ordinary members of a tribe were buried without such display, 

 and their bones were broken up and put indiscriminately into 

 the graves. That accounted for the accumulation of bones 

 that were sometimes found on the banks of the Torrens when a 

 landslip had exposed some old native burying ground. Along 

 the banks of the Coorong it was a common practice of the 

 blacks to hide their dead in the branches of trees, and even 



