236 
CONCLTTBINO KOTE. 
tribesj of whatever race, correspond in social, and often in 
physical cbaracteristicSj to a remarkable degree, whenever 
they have become inhabitants of a similar description of 
country, whether dense jungles, or open table-lands. In 
the former, maritime enterprise seems to form the natural 
channel of improvement, and in the open uplands the 
process becomes developed in the cultivation of the 
soO. 
A perusal of Mr. J. R, Logan's excellent description of 
the Sabimba, Mintira, Sletar, and other tribes inhabiting 
the coast jungles of the Malay Peninsula, which is given 
in the first volume of the Joimial of the Indian Archi- v 
pelagOj" will show how tribes of the Malayan race may 
possess a lower development of social and physical charac- 
teristics than the coast Papuans, or even the Monobar 
Australians, who although they do not cultivate the soil, 
collect the seeds of the pmiicum leuimde, and the grain- 
like roots of the marawaUj which they grind np to form a 
kind of bread, their chief food during certain seasons of 
the year. This system of grain-collecting extends far 
along the muge to the south-east, as it was found in use 
among the natives met with by Sir Thomas Mitchell near 
the northern boundaiy of the Sydney district, and by 
those encountered by Captain Sturt in the great central 
desert. The system of collecting the spontaneous pro- 
ductions of the soil to serve as food, of course interests 
the natives in the preservation of the plants, and a 
natural induction would lead them to appreciate their 
propagation ; ao that the introduction of a single native 
of the neighbouring islands, acquainted with agricul- 
