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IX. 
NOTES OK SOME HABITS AND CUSTOMS OE THE NATIYES 
OE THE KIMBERLEY DISTRICT, WESTERN AUSTRALIA. 
By EDWARD T. HARDMAN, E.R.G.S.I., Her Majesty's Geolo- 
gical Survey ; late Government Geologist, Western Australia. 
[Read January 10, 1887.] 
In tlie course of two visits to the northern part of "Western Aus- 
tralia, of seven and nine months respectively, vs^hile engaged on a 
Geological Survey of the district, I had many opportunities of noticing 
the characteristics of the Aborigines. I was also able to obtain a 
small collection of native weapons and implements, some photographs, 
and four skulls. An account of the native weapons I have already 
submitted to this Academy. 
The Kimberley district is the extreme northern, portion of Western 
Australia, lying between 13° 50' and 19° 30' south latitude, and ex- 
tending from longitude 122° east to 129° east, and is, therefore, well 
within the tropics. 
The natives differ but little from the other tribes of the great 
Island Continent in appearance, except that they are generally — that 
is the males — tall and somewhat superior in physique. The average 
height of the men is 5 feet 8 inches, and the chest measurement is 
about 31 inches. But like all the Australian races they are deficient in 
the legs, which are very thin, as will be noticed in the photographs. 
Their average weight is much below that of white men. Eor instance 
one man who stood 6 feet 2 inches, and whose native name was, by a 
curious coincidence, ''Lofty," weighed but 9 stones — 126 lbs. 
The development of these men seems to take place altogether in 
the torso, and I have seen many men so powerfully built, as to chest 
and arms, that it seemed difficult to realize how such poor spindle- 
shanked legs could support the body. This is the more curious, seeing 
that their nomadic tribes travel on foot, and one might suppose that 
the leg muscles would be largely developed. 
Yet, though so attenuated in the lower limbs, they are wiry and 
vigorous. I have known these natives to trot fifteen or twenty miles j 
alongside of our cavalcade on the chance of getting a little damper and [ 
sugar when we camped down. 
