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 LANGUAGE.

The River Wimmera, the River Richardson, the River Avoca, and the River Loddon, are all within the southern basin of the River Murray, and drain a generally very level country, not thickly wooded, except in the parts occupied by Mallee scrub. It is about twenty-five thousand square miles in extent; and communication between all parts of it is comparatively easy. It is not necessary to comment on the obvious inferences to be derived from a mere glance at the words in the tables. The dialects throughout this area present no such striking differences as those of the River Murray. The explanations given by my correspondents show how alterations in the dialects have occurred, without preventing the people of the several tribes from being intelligible to each other.

It may be said indeed that throughout this area there was but one language,—or, perhaps, to state the case more accurately, one dialect: the differences being no greater than are found to occur when we compare the vocabularies of the people inhabiting different counties in England.