MURRUMBIDGEE, LOWER LACHLAN, AND LOWER DARLING. 39 
As a general rule the aborigines do not erect their loondthals 
(huts) on these cooking mounds; an exception to this exists, how- 
ever, on the extensive reedy plains of the lower rivers, which are 
annually inundated, remaining so for at least five months in the 
ear. 
On these wide-spreading reed-beds, blackfellows’ ovens are 
much larger in size and vastly more numerous than they are in 
any other portion of the Colony, thus plainly denoting how dense 
the populationin the locality must have been, as well as the 
abundance of food pertaining thereto, which was ready to hand 
for their sustenance. When the mild rains of spring dissolve the 
snows on the Alps and in their valleys, the liberated waters rush 
down the rivers and their innumerable tributaries, spreading 
themselves out in every direction, when they reach the reedy 
refreshing to the eye, by reason of the dense growth of giant salt- 
bush with which they are prettily dressed. 
These oven islands the aborigines utilise in the flood season, for 
lp sites, conveying their firewood and other requirements over 
miles of water in their canoes. n encampment will frequently 
remain on these tiny islands for a whole month, the 
es to bear with any degree of comfort. Whenit does so 
y shift away to another mound, leaving natural agencies to 
: ; the contaminated atmosphere round and about the 
doned islet, 
; carey skeletons are frequently found in the cooking 
the 8, which no doubt led to the notion of their being barrows ; 
= a for the position of these skeletons, however, can easily 
” explained—for example, a death takes place on one of these 
4, Lhese mounds are u 
abe usually near to a permanent water (lake or lagoon) on 
Neel ae oar we as Ne ong of course were vrowest above the 
Se Lig ng continued use before they become useful for encampment 
“tes when the plains are inundated. f 2 
