Coasts of Australia. 
59 
Australia? Tlie granite range abutting on Halifax Bay, 
about 3000 feet high, must drain in a direction calcu¬ 
lated to favour the supposition. So again, in November, 
1839, we found the broad reaches of the Victoria blocked 
up with vast accumulations of boulder stones brought 
down at a very recent period from the regions to the 
S.E.; and the trees were all growing at an angle of 85° 
with the horizon, bent by the force of the floods. On 
that occasion we got within 500 miles of the centre of 
Australia, latitude 15° 36' S., longitude 130° 52' east. 
On the present occasion little more than 400 miles inter¬ 
vened between the spot at which we turned back from 
our expedition up the Albert and the central point of 
Australia—that point which is still to be won before we 
can fairly call this unwieldy continent our own. Many 
rare birds, and one of the new species of kangaroo (Ma¬ 
cropus unguifer), were added to our collections. But we 
had no intercourse with the Aborigines upon this river, 
and only saw a few of them at a distance. But little, 
indeed, was seen of the natives at any time during our 
voyage. In the northern part of West Australia, on one 
occasion, I crawled up within 100 yards of a party 
apparently digging the warren-root, a kind of native 
yam. We found a curious tomb constructed by them. 
The corpse was cased in bark, secured by a netting, and 
placed in a tree about twenty feet above the ground, 
with layers of sticks neatly disposed above it. The Ara- 
furas, or mountaineers, of New Guinea have, I believe, 
a somewhat similar custom; and I have heard that the 
aborigines of Tasmania have been known to cover their 
dead bodies with bark and place them in a tree. Some 
of the natives of North Australia will carry the bones of 
their children about with them ; and it is surprising to 
see with what rapidity they put them together. 
The place where we found this corpse was on the banks 
