"A huntsman's life," says Wilhelmi, "under any circumstances is a migratory one, but it becomes the more so in this country, where Nature's products are obtainable only according to the season, and in districts far off one from the other. On this account the Port Lincoln blacks are obliged at times to resort to the sea-coast for catching fish; at others, to rove over hill and dale in pursuit of game and roots; and during the unproductive months they are forced, for the smaller kinds of game, to roam through the whole country, some parts of which are covered with an almost impenetrable small scrub, and other parts complete deserts, all the time having to contend against a dreadful heat, rendered almost insupportable by the reflection of the rays of the sun and of the surrounding burning scrub, and being, in addition to all this, deprived of a sufficiency of water. . . . . . . The habit of constantly changing their places of rest is so great that they cannot overcome it, even if staying where all their wants can be abundantly supplied. A certain longing to revisit this or that spot, for which they have taken a particular fancy, seizes them, and neither promises nor persuasion can induce them to resist it for any time; only in time and by degrees is this feeling likely to give way. As they travel greater distances during the summer months than daring winter, they then also more frequently change their places of rest."[1]
Property in Land.
Though the land occupied by each tribe was the common property of the tribe, insomuch as they could hunt over it, kill the wild animals on it, and gather the fruits and roots and tubers growing within its area, there were some obscure personal rights of property. Members of the tribe, it is said, had lands which they called their own; the right to such lands descended from generation to generation; and these rights were respected by all, and jealously guarded by the proprietors.
Grey says that "landed property does not belong to a tribe, or to several families, but to a single male; and the limits of his property are so accurately defined, that every native knows those of his own land, and can point out the various objects which mark his boundary."
And Dr. Lang, in a letter to Dr. Hodgkin, quoted by Grey, states that "particular districts are not merely the property of particular tribes; particular sections, or portions of these districts, are universally recognised by the natives as the property of individual members of these tribes; and when the owner of such a section, or portion of territory (as I ascertained was the case at King George's Island), has determined on burning off the grass on his land—which is done for the double purpose of enabling the natives to take the older animals more easily, and to provide a new crop of sweeter grass for the rising generation of the forest—not only all the other individuals of his own tribe, but whole tribes from other districts, are invited to the hunting party, and the feast and
- ↑ Manners and Customs of the Australian Natives, &c., pp. 176-8.
