40 THE ABORIGINES OF THE LOWER MURRAY, LOWER 
isolated spots, when there chances to be but a small section of a 
covered up. ‘Immediately after one of these hurried burials the 
mound is vacated, and ere much time has passed the defunct 
description of sepulture is only given to old worn-out women or 
invalids of long standing, and who had become troublesome and 
tiresome to their unwilling attendants. 
I once had occasion to remove the whole of a blackfellow’s oven ; 
it was a fair-sized one, and contained quite 3,000 cubic yards 
of soil ; during its removal twenty-eight skeletons were exhumed. 
This large number was a matter of considerable surprise to me, but 
aking due inquiry amongst the very old aborigines—the young 
people of the tribe did not know anything about them—lI dis- 
covered that they were the remains of some of the small-pox victims 
who died during the earlier stages of the epidemic, whilst sepul- 
ture was yet being given to those who succumbed to the loathsome 
plague, 
CANOES. 
The aborigines make their wnkooies (canoes) from the bark of 
the red gum tree; bark of other trees, notably box, is also used, 
but merely for temporary purposes, as no other bark but the 
former will stand the weather without curling up and splitting. 
In all cases each canoe is made from a single sheet of bark without 
chosen, as canoes so obtained precludes the necessity of using fire 
to soften the bark with the view to giving the required rise stem 
too 
much depressed by reason of their own weight. If at this stage the 
canoe should not have the exact shape desired by the maker, he 
places heavy billets of wood inside at those parts which require 
still in the canoe and the props still in position outside, a coat of 
well puddled clay is plastered all over the interior, which effectually 
hinders sun-cracks ; in this condition the canoe is left in the sun to 
hard that it is able to retain the shape ever after, no matter how 
