234 On the Condition and Prospects 



5. Physical Aspect. 



The aborigines of New South Wales and Van Piemen's Land, 

 observes Strzelecki, bear respectively the stamp of different families, 

 together with such variations as the nature of the climate and other 

 conditions of life might impress upon the human frame. 



Thus, in New South Wales, where bathing is a luxury, and heat 

 promotes perspiration, the hair is smooth and glossy, the skin fine, 

 and of a uniform colour ; whereas in Van Diemen's Land, from the 

 greater coldness of the climate, the skin appears scaly, subject to cuta- 

 neous disease, and weather-beaten, and the hair a prey to filthiness. 



The facial angle is between 75° and 85°, the forehead low, eyes 

 large and far apart, nose broad and flat, mouth wide, with large white 

 teeth and thick lips, the lower jaw unusually short, and widely ex- 

 panded anteriorly. The mammae of the females are not spherical 

 in shape, but pyriform, and soon after marriage they become flaccid 

 and elongated. 



The Australian native is adroit and flexible in the motions of his 

 body ; in the act of striking or throwing the spear his attitude is 

 extremely graceful. " In his physical appearance, nevertheless, he 

 does not exhibit any features by which his race could be classed or 

 identified with any of the generally known families of mankind." * 



The natives of Australia, states Mr Eyre, present a striking re- 

 semblance to each other in physical appearance and structure, and in 



general character, habits, and pursuits.! . . T „ 



° s -ten 9fIT — .^atol ajsos^mii 



6. Language. 



No feature is more conspicuous among the Australian aborigines 

 than their great diversity of speech ; every considerable tribe appear- 

 ing to have a distinct language of its own. Undoubtedly, the great 

 proportion of these varieties are to be classed as mere dialects, the 

 branches of primary stock, which have deviated more or less widely 

 from their common original, and from one another, according to va- 

 rious accidents in connection with the rarity of intercourse that pre- 

 vails one with another among the respective sections of the popula- 

 tion. But whether or not any of these diversities of speech are 

 traceable respectively to a more remote and independent origin, is a 

 question as yet by no means decided. 



Mr Dredge, after alluding to the effect of the separate and dis- 



* Strzelecki, p. 334. 



t Paper on the Aborigines of Australia, read before the Ethnological So- 

 ciety. Captain Sturt, during his late hazardous expedition to Central Australia, 

 met with aborigines more tall and more handsomely formed than those of any 

 of the tribes hitherto encountered. Like the aborigines of North Australia, as 

 observed by Dr Leichardt, they made use of food prepared by bruising, and 

 baking seeds. 



