the neighbouring ones, in consequence of the slaughter committed among them by the sealers. We saw a few on an adjacent rock.
7th. Some of the male Aborigines amused themselves with throwing waddies and spears at grass-tree stems, set up as marks, which they frequently hit. They still strip off their clothes when engaged in this amusement; but in wearing decent covering at other times, as well as in many other respects, they shew decided marks of advancing civilization.—In dressing their spears, they use a sharp flint or a knife: in using the latter for this purpose, they hold it by the end of the blade. They straighten their spears till they balance as accurately as a well prepared fishing-rod, performing this operation with their teeth. The simplicity of the weapons of these people, has been urged as a proof of their defect of intellect, but it is much more a proof of their dexterity, in being able, with such simple implements, to procure game, &c. for food. A shower of their spears, which they send through the air with a quivering motion, would be terribly destructive.
The climbing of the lofty, smooth-trunked gum-trees, by the women, to obtain opossums, which lodge in the hollows of decayed branches, is one of the most remarkable feats I ever witnessed. This is effected without making any holes for the thumbs or great toes, as is common among the natives of N. S. Wales, except where the bark is rough and loose, at the base of the tree. In this a few notches are cut by means of a sharp flint, or a hatchet; the latter being preferred. A rope, twice as long as is necessary to encompass the tree, is then thrown around it. In former times, this was made of tough grass, or strips of Kangaroo skin, but one of hemp is now generally used. The left hand is twisted firmly into one end of the rope, the middle of which is tightly grasped by the right, the hatchet is placed on the bare, closely-cropped head, and the feet are placed against the tree: a step or two is then advanced, and the body, at the same time, is brought into a posture so nearly erect as to admit the rope, by a compound motion, to be slackened, and at the same moment hitched a little
