CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
141 
from the north-east, to feed upon the berries of a shrub 
growing on the sea coast, although no parrots were 
seen for two or three hundred miles on either side, 
either to the east or to the west, they must, therefore, 
have come from the interior. Now the parrot is a 
bird that often frequents a mountainous country, and 
always inhabits one having timber of a better des- 
cription and larger growth than the miserable shrubs 
met with along the coast ; it is a bird too that always 
lives within reach of permanent fresh-water, as rivers, 
lakes, creeks, pools, &c. Can there then be such in 
the interior, with so barren and arid a region, 
bounding it? and how are we to commence an ex- 
amination with so many difficulties and embarrass- 
ments attending the very outset ? 
The second series of facts which have attracted 
my attention, relate to the Aborigines. It is a well 
known circumstance that the dialects, customs, and 
pursuits in use among them in the various parts of 
the continent, differ very much from each other in 
some particulars, and yet that there is such a general 
similarity in the aggregate as to leave no room to 
doubt that all the Aborigines of Australia have had 
one common origin, and are in reality one and 
the same race. If this then is really the case, they 
must formerly have spread over the continent 
from one first point, and this brings me to the 
Third reason I have mentioned as being one, 
from which I infer, that there is not an inland sea, 
viz., the coincidence observable in the physical 
