THROUGHOUT THE CONTINENT. 405 
sions, which otherwise might have been almost 
certainly deduced. 
Connecting, however, and comparing all the facts 
with which we are acquainted, respecting the 
Aborigines, it appears that there are still grounds 
sufficient to hazard the opinion, that it is not im- 
probable that Australia was first peopled on its 
north-western coast, between the parallels of 12° 
and 16° S. latitude. From whence we might sur- 
mise that three grand divisions had branched out 
from the parent tribe, and that from the offsets 
of these the whole continent had been overspread. 
The first division appears to have proceeded round 
the north-western, western, and south-western coast, 
as far as the commencement of the Great Australian 
Bight. The second, or central one, appears to have 
crossed the continent inland, to the southern coast, 
striking it about the parallel of 134° E. longitude. 
The third division seems to have followed along the 
bottom of the Gulf of Carpentaria to its most south- 
easterly bight, and then to have turned off by the 
first practicable line in a direction towards Fort 
Bourke, upon the Darling. From these three 
divisions various offsets and ramifications would 
have been made from time to time as they advanced, 
so as to overspread and people by degrees the whole 
country round their respective lines of march. 
Each offset appearing to retain fewer or more of the 
original habits, customs, &c. of the parent tribe in 
proportion to the distance traversed, or its isolated 
