of the Aborigines of Australia. 231 



additional numbers of the helpless offspring are sacrificed to the 

 superstition or barbarism of their parents and tribes. Very few 

 women have more than two children ; and the great proportion of 

 the infants do not survive the first month. Of the children born 

 among the Yarra and Western Port tribes during the last six years 

 there is now but one remaining alive. Among the aborigines in- 

 habiting between the river Campaspe and the Pyrenees hills, num- 

 bering 421 individuals, the surviving children born during the space 

 of two years and a half were only five males and five females ; a 

 much larger number were brought forth, most of whom did not sur- 

 vive a month. 



Count Strzelecki has mentioned a remarkable physical law, in 

 connection with the rapid decrease of these aboriginal races, which 

 is but too ominous of their final destiny. It has been ascertained, 

 with reference to various aboriginal tribes, including those of New 

 Zealand, New South Wales, and Van Diemen's Land, that the 

 aboriginal woman, after connection with a European male, " loses 

 the power of conception on a renewal of intercourse with the male 

 of her own race, retaining only that of procreating with the white 

 man." 



Condition and means of support. — Their present condition and 

 means of subsistence appear to be well ascertained. In those lo- 

 calities where fish are to be obtained this description of food is in 

 principal use. Mahroot states that his tribe lived generally on fern 

 root, and the fish caught at the sea-coast ; the tribe never quitted the 

 sea-coast. The subsistence of the natives about Moreton Bay is de- 

 rived entirely from the sea. Various roots are also resorted to, par- 

 ticularly that called the murnong, a small root of a nutritious cha- 

 racter, having a leaf like that of a parsnip, of which they are very 

 fond. 



Mr Malcolm thinks that the grazing of sheep and cattle has 

 greatly reduced the growth of this root. Mr Thomas, on the other 

 hand, asserts that it is a mistaken notion that the sheep tend to de- 

 stroy this root. The native, he says can readily find it out, even 

 without the guidance of the flower. The indigenous roots used by 

 the aborigines are mostly bulbs, very firm in the ground, and, with 

 the exception of pigs, not likely to be destroyed by any animal. The 

 supply of most other descriptions of their food has been either dimi- 

 nished or entirely taken away by the occupation of their country ; 

 the kangaroo, for example, and various other animals and birds ; and 

 the supply of gum has also been much decreased, in consequence of 

 the extensive exportation of mimosa bark. 



The natives must suffer severely in the winter season. The 

 women, with their young infants on their shoulders, may be seen 

 seeking for grubs on mimosa gum ; and sometimes, when they are 

 perhaps suckling infants, they will be half a day or night in the 

 water spearing eels. To European minds, the condition of the abo- 



