8 
HORN EXPEDITION—ANTHROPOLOGY. 
being a very material diminution of cattle killing. Several of the worst offenders 
were caught and sent to the Port Augusta gaol for a term, but the general com¬ 
plaint in the district was that the sentences to which they were committed were 
far too short to serve as a deterrent. The malefactors speedily make their way 
back to their old liaunts and resume their old wiles with the addition of such 
others as they have learned during their residence in gaol. Several, I might say 
nearly all, of our local guide.s, that we picked up as we proceeded, had been 
through this experience, and the exhibition to them by any of ourselves of the 
gesture sign for cattle was accepted as a sort of personal joke, which was always 
greeted by themselves and their comrades with great and appreciative laughter. 
Notwithstanding, however, their partiality for animal food we saw large numbers 
of natives living almost entirely on vegetable products, and from all appearance 
thriving on them. 
In respect of our ethnological investigations, it was, perhaps, unfortunate 
that our journey was made in so good a season. Soakages and water-holes were 
numerous, even in districts where, as a rule, scarcely any permanent water exists, 
and thus secure, in almost any direction, of this necessary element and of abundant 
food, the natives were scattered over a wide area in small groups, which were hard 
to meet with owing to their natural timidity at the approach of our large party. 
Nevertheles.s, their presence in our immediate neighbourhood was often evident by 
the smoke of their camp fires, or of burning porcupine grass [Triodin). For these 
reasons it happened that the numbers of blacks congregated around the stations, 
from whom our observations were made, was smaller than it would have been 
in a less favourable season. We were also not fortunate enough to meet with one 
of their large periodic gatherings at some favouilte locality, for ceremonial 
purposes. 
Both at Tempe Downs and at the Hermannsburg Mission Station on the 
Finke River there had previously been assemblages of two or three hundred 
with such objects in view, but the.se had at the time of our visit, dwindled 
down to barely a quarter of that number, and it is precisely those who are 
in the habit of hanging on to the outskirts of civilisation and well on in the 
way of abandoning their old customs, that form the least desirable subjects for 
observation. 
Much has been said concerning the harsh treatment to which the blacks have 
lieen subjected by the early settlers in Australia. Central Australia has not been 
wholly free from those instances of wanton and unneces.sary destruction of defence¬ 
less natives that have excited righteous indignation. There have been the same old 
