not the remotest idea of a canoe nor any kind of water conveyance whatever.' When I visited Twofold Bay, in the yacht Wanderer, soon after our arrival in Australia in that vessel, twenty years ago, we found the natives of that part had their canoes—of bark, certainly, hut still canoes in which they went out into the bay to catch fish by lines and spearing. Twofold Bay is upon the southern point of the continent, in lat. 37° 6’ 40” S. The concluding remark, in which Mr. Jukes expresses his doubt as to whether any wood grows in Australia 'large enough and light enough to make a canoe if merely hollowed out,' will surprise many, besides myself, who have visited Australia. I have before me a list of upwards of three hundred Australian trees, many of which, from their great size and other properties, must be adapted for making the largest canoes. A considerable proportion of the large Australian trees, as the black butt (Eucalyptus media?), become very hollow when they attain their greatest size. One of the most useful trees in Australia, the cedar (Cedrela Australis), is very large and light, and is cut annually in great quantities at the Bellengen, Clarence, and other rivers, and floated down to the coast for shipment to Sydney. Nearly all the Australian wooden canoes that I have seen had outriggers with floats of light wood attached; and these not only give great stability, but are calculated to support upon the surface of the water canoes made from wood which otherwise, from their weight, might not be adapted for the purpose. A friend of mine in Sydney had a canoe made from one of the Australian trees (the red-gum, I believe), and this carried upwards of fifteen people easily, without any assistance from floats or outriggers. When we were at Cape York, the natives pointed out to me the trees of which they said they made their canoes; and Macgillivray (Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, vol. II., p. 16) gives the following account of their construction at that place:—'A tree of sufficient size, free from limbs—usually a species of bombax (silk-cotton tree) or erythrina—is selected in the scrub, cut down, hollowed out where it falls, and dragged to the beach by means of long climbers used as ropes. The remaining requisites are now added; two stout poles, fourteen to twenty feet in length, are laid across the gunwale, and secured there from six to ten feet apart; and the projecting ends are secured by lashing and wooden pegs to a long float of light wood on each side, pointed, and slightly turned up at the ends. A platform or stage of small sticks laid across occupies the centre of the canoe, extending on each side several feet beyond the gunwale, and having on the outside a sort of double fence of upright sticks, used for stowing away weapons and other gear. The cable is made of twisted climbers, often the Flagellaria Indica, and a large stone serves for an anchor.' When I wrote the letter on this subject, which you did me the honor to insert in your number of the 1st inst., I had not seen Mr. Crawfurd's paper 'On Classification of the Races of Men,' published in the last volume of the 'Transactions of the Ethnological Society,' and my observations then were in consequence of the statement which I heard Mr. Crawfurd make at a meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, and the views attributed to him in a notice of his paper in the Times of the 29th of January last. Upon reading Mr. Jukes's letter, however, I thought that perhaps the paper itself might contain
