president’s ADDRESS — SECTION F. 
147 
out as the contour of the ground required, must have engaged these 
native navvies a long time, as well as tested their ingenuity and 
constructive ability. The aboriginal nets and implements for catching 
fish and birds are models of good workmanship. 
Their surgical operations, from the setting of a broken limb to 
the amputation of one, are operations not to be despised. They have 
utilised native plants and their extracts for the cure of bodily ailments 
— for instance, the Goa-Loo-Wurrah ( Sarcostemma australe) is used 
in the cure of skin diseases, by breaking off a piece of the plant and 
applying the milky juice, as it oozes out, to the sore by touching it all 
over in a similar way to the application of caustic. Goa-Loo ( Alstonia 
verticellosa ) , the bark of the milk tree, is applied to cuts and wounds. 
The Guc-AVhiy-Lah is a kind of gutn extracted from a species of 
Eucalyptus, which is used as a plaster for wounds and old sores. 
In many parts of the country their cemeteries are kept with 
loving care, and show much taste and ability in laying them out. 
Plate T represents a burial-place called “ Milmeridien,” near the 
Bogan Bivcr. Sir Thomas Mitchell says — It was a fairv-like spot 
in the midst of drooping acacias. Tt was extensive, and laid out in 
walks, which were narrow and smooth, as if intended for spirits only, 
and they meandered in gracefully-curved lines among the heaps of 
reddish earth, which contrasted finely with the acacias and dark 
casuarinas around ; others gilt with moss shot far into the recesses of 
the bush, where slight traces of still more ancient graves proved the 
antiquity of these simple but touching records of humanity.” A similar 
cemetery exists near the Einke River, in the centre of the continent. 
Plate U represents a tomb discovered by John Oxley in 1817 in 
146° E. and 33° S. He came upon a tumulus apparently of recent 
construction, and from the exterior marks he imagined that some 
person of distinction had been buried there. The form was semi- 
circular, and three rows of seats occupied one-half the grave, and an 
outer row of seats the other. The seats formed segments of circles of 
50 feet, 45 feet, and 40 feet each, and were formed by the soil trenched 
up from between them. The centre part of the grave was about 5 feet 
high and about 0 feet long, forming an oblong pointed cone. 
In long. 125° 1 1' E. and lat. 10° L' 45'' S. Captain Grey found 
two remarkable heaps of stones. The southernmost one was opened 
by him. He states that “ five men were occupied two hours in 
opening from the side to the centre, and thence downwards to the 
middle. The stones were of all sizes, from one as weighty as a strong 
man could lift to the smallest pebble. The base of each heap was covered 
with rank vegetation, but the top was clear from the stones having 
been recently deposited. These heaps were placed due east and west, 
and, as will be seen, with great regularity.” ( Plate V ’.) 
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 
The Australian natives are very poor in respect to instrumental 
music. Their usual and universal accompaniments to their songs and 
dances are the rolled-up opossum rugs beaten like drums with the 
hands, and the clash of two sonorous pieces of wood, keeping time with 
the song. There is, however, another instrument called the Eberoo , or 
Ebroo , being a long and hollow bamboo. One of these native trumpets 
in my possession is 4 feet 5 inches in length ; the diameter of the 
