THE OVEN-MOUNDS OF THE ABORIGINES IN VICTORIA. 57 
Upon making specific inquiry into the matter the writer ascer- 
f peat 
places in the region called The Plains. Quantities of long 
grass are also available. In the circumstances it is interesting to 
find that to make the most of the materials to hand, the aborigines 
on the western plains of Victoria hit upon the very same device 
which was adopted by inhabitants of the Faroe Islands in the 
northern seas of Eur The stormy petrel was used as fuel (as 
well as a candle to ane light) by the inhabitants of the north, and 
so the fat of the game used by the aborigines of the west of 
Victoria was used to feed the flame which cooked the anim 
themselves intended for foo 
In connection with the distribution a oven-mounds may be 
taken the question of size, as distinguishing those in the Meredith 
district from those in the neighbourhood of Mortlake. The mounds 
in the latter district are often of great size; some of them are 
described as upwards of 100 feet in diameter, with ashes about 10 
feet thick at the centre. The writer paced one which was 79 feet 
in diameter. The largest which he saw in the Meredith district 
was only about 33 feet in diameter. Points which supply at least 
some elements of explanation of this difference in size are such as 
these:—Many of the Meredith ovens are on small creeks, whereas 
the large accumulations of ashes in the Mortlake district are 
alongside lakes which abound with water-fowl, fish, and eels. With 
plenty of forest to supply fuel, the aborigines could thus re 
at the same camping places all the year round; whereas in the less 
in the Meredith district. 
But the most important point in connection with the distribution 
of the oven-mounds is the limited area in which they are found in 
Australia. They extend from the Murray to - sea, through 
central Victoria ; they are numerous and large on the Murray, 
and extend for some distance into New South Wales on the banks 
of the Lachlan, where Sir Thomas Mitchell’s attention was first 
arrested by them. He had not seen such collections of ashes in 
other parts of this Colony, although heaps of shells, the refuse of 
aboriginal feasts, have been observed on the shores of Port 
oven-mounds in Central Australia, and also in Western Australia 
These facts raise broadly the question, how are the mounds 
restricted to so small an area? The suggestion has been made that 
the accumulation of ashes supplied a space elevated above the 
