subjects referred to in his paper, and he voluntarily gave up much of his time in preparing his sketches for this work.
The Rev. William Ridley, M.A., of Sydney, whose name is foremost amongst those connected with Australian philological researches, has, with extreme kindness, contributed a paper in which he relates a few of the most remarkable traditions that have come under his observation—selecting, as he informs me in a letter, those that seem most emphatically to silence the long-current assumption that the Aborigines of Australia are a race destitute of all ideas concerning the unseen world and of all imagination and hope. No one who has perused the published works of the learned author of the paper which appears in this compilation will need to be reminded that he is the highest authority in Australia on all matters that relate to the Aboriginal natives.
I have received ready assistance also from the Rev. F. A. Hagenauer, the Superintendent of the Aboriginal Station at Lake Wellington in Gippsland; the Rev. A. Hartmann, the Rev. F. W. Spieseke, and the Rev. Horatio Ellermann, of Lake Hindmarsh; the Rev. Amos Brazier and Mr. Joseph Shaw, of Lake Condah; Mr. H. B. Lane, of Warrnambool; Mr. Goodall, the Superintendent of the Aboriginal Station at Framlingham; Mr. Charles Gray, of Nareeb Nareeb; Mr. J. A. Panton, Police Magistrate and Warden at Geelong; the late Mr. W. H. Wright, Sheriff; the late Mr. A. F. A. Greeves and Mr. M. Hervey; Mr. N. Munro; the Rev. H. P. Kane; Mr. A. Sullivan, of Bulloo Downs; Mr. Alfred Telo, Mr. Sydenham Bowden; Mr. F. M. Krausé, Mr. Reginald A. F. Murray, and Mr. Norman Taylor, Geological Surveyors in Victoria; the Honorable Frederick Barlee, M.P., Colonial Secretary in West Australia; Mr. H. Y. L. Brown, Geological Surveyor; Mr. George Bridgman, of Gooneenberry, Mackay, Queensland; the Rev. S. McFarlane, New Guinea Mission, of Somerset, Cape York; Capt. Cadell; Mr. W. E. Stanbridge, Daylesford; Mr. F. M. Hughan; Mr. John W. Amos, Surveyor; Mr. J. Cosmo Newbery, B.Sc; Mr. Suetonius H. Officer, Murray Downs; Mr. Ronald Gunn, F.R.S., Launceston; Mr. Hugh M. Hull, Clerk of the House of Assembly, Hobart Town; Mr. J. W. Agnew, Hon. Sec. of the Royal Society of Tasmania; Miss E. M. a'Beckett, who was so good as to make a drawing of a characteristic Tasmanian plant; and others whose names are mentioned in the work.
In conclusion, I have to refer to the great help and encouragement I have received from Professor McCoy, of the Melbourne University, who has
