
ABORIGINES OF THE SOUTH-EAST OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA 477 
later on, and seafish that could be speared or otherwise secured. Depending also 
upon weather conditions would be the gathering of large numbers of the little 
““mucilaginoug’’ fishes obtained by making weirs across the flooded swemps, 
Reptiles can have furnished only occasional tit-bits. 
Tuseets would be represented by sometimes obtaining the large grubs fond 
in the red gums and banksias, 
_ The supply of plant foods was almost negligible, consisting of _ few small 
fruits, the best of which were the muntries and the small white berries of 
Leucepogon. A few balbous roots were obtained, and on Mrs, Smith’s authority, 
some Seeds were also available, These vegetable sources of food would give a little 
variety, but were seasonable and mostly in smell quantity, 
From the above summary it will be seen how dependent the natives must have 
been upon the marsupials and larger birds, Professor Mitchell informs us that 
we ean probably estimate the food required to maintain a man, his wife, and two 
children in health without deteriorating at about. 65 pounds of meat food per week, 
if meat alone were available, which would be approximately the equivalent of 
oné kangaroo or one emu or four wallabies (allowing for bones, ete.). Though 
opossums may show plenty of retroperitoneal fat aud even subcutaneous fat and 
according to the availability nf feed, wallabies and kangaroos may have consider- 
able quantities of fat round the kidneys, it is probable that the latter animals were 
on the whole rather deficient in fat, which was in consequence a food much sought. 
after, As the fur is burnt off before cooking, the skin was probably consumed, 
The natives made use of all available portions of the animals, eating all the viscera, 
including (he intestines (after expelling their contents), Their method of covking 
the intact animal retained all the body juices. As elsewhere, the long bones would 
be broken for their marrow content rich in fat. 
Earuy Accounts or THE APPEARANCE OF THE NATIVES AND OF THE ABUNDANCE 
or Game. When in April, 1844, Sir George Grey's party lighted fires on the top 
of Mount Benson, S.E. of Lacepede Bay, these fires were soon answered by 
many columns of amoke to the south and east, and finally all around ‘‘giving 
indications of a.larger population amongst these banksia woods than we antici- 
pated.’’ Further on, after having met them, G, Freneh Angas notes that ‘‘these 
natives belonged to a tribe totally different trom those of the Milmendura, whom 
we had met with along the shores of the Coorong, and were very inferior to them 
in physical appearance, .,, Their figures (were) extremely slight and attenuated, 
with the abdomen of a disproportionate size. They were filthy and wretched in 
the extreme; all their teeth were black and rotten, their skin was dry, and. that of 
one man presented a purplish-red eolour.’’ It thus appears that in the Mt, 
Benson-Rivoli Bay district there was a vonsiderable population, but the people 
looked attenuated with protuberant abdomens and decayed teeth—the last a very 
surprising statement if really based on a careful examination, The following 
aceount of the foods available to these people will show that in quantity it was 
seemingly ample. As this district is subject to ‘‘coast disease*’ in sheep (due to 
a deficiency im copper and cobalt), is there any possibility, since the natives 
necessarily lived entirely ‘‘off the land,’’ that the same or some similar deficiency 
was the explanation of their appesrance? 
Ebenezer Ward, when he visited the South-Hast in 1869 noted the abundance 
of game near Mt, Muirhead (p, 68), ‘'In its vicinity I searcely ever passed it 
withont seeing a flock of emus, or a mob of kangaroos, or both, on some part 
of it; and the ferns, which are dense and luxuriant everywhere on the Yower 
and sandier slopes of the range extéuding from Mt. Graham, and Mt, Burr, fairly 
swarm with marsupials. From the diminutive ‘brush’, not much bigger than a 
