214 R. H. MATHEWS. 



wise used on some of the rivers flowing into the Gulf of 

 Carpentaria. 



The "catamaran" and the "dug-out" canoe, now used 

 by the aborigines of Cape York Peninsula, Port Darwin, 

 and other northern parts of the continent, will not be 

 included in this article, because I do not consider them of 

 purely Australian origin, but believe them to be intro- 

 ductions from Torres Straits. 



I would like to offer a few remarks on certain statements 

 made by two of the early writers on the New South Wales 

 aborigines. Dr. George Bennett, when travelling from 

 Cullen Bullen to Dabee in the Rylstone district saw some 

 kurrajong trees, upon which he makes the following com- 

 ment: — "The wood of the kurrajong tree is used by the 

 aborigines for boats and canoes." 1 Some years ago I was 

 all through that district discharging my duties as a sur- 

 veyor, and being aware of Dr. Bennett's statement, I made 

 inquiry from old blackfellows if ever they had made canoes 

 out of wood, but they had never heard of such a thing. I 

 also asked white settlers of long standing in that part, and 

 their replies were to the same effect. I am of opinion that 

 Dr. Bennett was told by white people that the natives 

 sometimes used dry logs of kurrajong and other light and 

 buoyant woods as rafts, and that he did not differentiate 

 between these and the actual canoe. 



Mr. G. F. Angas says: — "Their canoes were very rude. 

 To the southward and on the Murray River they are mere 

 pieces of bark tied together at the ends and kept open by 

 means of small bows of wood. Towards the north they 

 have canoes of a more substantial character, formed of the 

 trunks of trees, twelve or fourteen feet long; they are 

 hollowed out by tire and afterwards trimmed into shape 



1 ' Wanderings in New South Wales/ (London 1834) I., 115. 



