300 
PROPERTY IN LAND. 
cular tracts of land now held by Europeans; and indeed this idea 
of property in the soil, for hunting purposes , is universal among 
the Aborigines. They seldom complain of the intrusion of 
Europeans; on the contrary, they are pleased at their sitting 
down , as they call it, on their land: they do not perceive that 
their own circumstances are thereby sadly altered for the worse in 
most cases; that their means of subsistence are gradually more 
and more limited, and their numbers rapidly diminished: in 
short, in the simplicity of their hearts, they take the frozen 
a dder in their bosom, and it stings them to death. They look for 
a benefit or blessing from European intercourse, and it becomes 
their ruin. 
“ If I had a little more leisure I would have written more at 
length, and in a style more worthy of your perusal ; but you 
may take it as certain, at all events, that the Aborigines of Aus- 
tralia have an idea of property in the soil in their native and 
original state, and that that idea is, in reality, not very different 
from that of the European proprietors of sheep and cattle, by 
whom they have, in so many instances, been dispossessed, without 
the slightest consideration of their rights or feelings. 
“ Indeed, the infinity of the native names of places, all of 
which are descriptive and appropriate, is of itself a prima facie 
evidence of their having strong ideas of property in the soil; for 
it is only where such ideas are entertained and acted on, tha^ 
we find, as is certainly the case in Australia, Nullum sine 
nomine saxum. “ I am, my dear Friend, 
“ Your’s very sincerely, 
“John Dunmore Lang. 
To Dr. Hodgkin.” 
The dwellings of the Aborigines are simple, of a 
very temporary character, and requiring but little 
skill or labour to construct them. In the summer 
season, or when the weather is fine, they consist of 
little more than a few bushes laid one upon the 
