DURATION OF LIFE. 
377 
Captain Grey found such to occur sometimes in 
Western Australia. On the number and proportion 
of the sexes he observes, that 4.6 seemed to be the 
average number of children born to each woman, 
and that there was one female to every 1.3 males. 
With respect to the duration of life among the 
Aborigines, Captain Grey says, vol. ii. p. 246-248 — 
“With regard to the age occasionally attained by 
the natives, I believe very erroneous ideas have been 
prevalent, for so far am I from considering them 
to be short lived, that I am certain they frequently 
attain the age of seventy years and upwards.” “Yet 
were these instances of longevity contrasted with the 
great number of deaths which take place during the 
period of infancy, there can be no doubt whatever 
that the average duration of life amongst these 
savage tribes falls far short of that enjoyed by 
civilized races.” 
These remarks, as far as my observation has ex- 
tended, apply to the natives of New Holland gene- 
rally. I have frequently met with many venerable, 
white-headed men among the Aborigines, who could 
not, 1 think, have been less than eighty years of age, 
and who yet retained the full vigour of mind, and 
the bold, upright, though now wasted form, that had 
characterised them in the pride of manhood; but 
about sixty-five appears perhaps to be the average 
age attained by the old. 
The second inference is more than borne out by 
the statement already recorded, that for every five 
