Page:Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay.djvu/247

 of that part of the world. In making any remarks on them, I should therefore be entering on a subject already discussed, but as the natives between Port Macquarie and Moreton Bay, with whom I have had much intercourse, differ in several of their customs and habits of life from those in the southern and western parts of the colony, I have appended to this work a few desultory observations concerning them; for notwithstanding the evident identity of origin, and general resemblance in their mode of life, which prevail throughout all the Aborigines of New Holland, there is often a very great diversity in the character, language, and customs of tribes in different localities, not very remote from each other, and in no part more so than on the coast country along the north-eastern part of the territory of New South Wales, where the abundance of food obtainable in the extensive brushes, and numerous rivers, enables each tribe to subsist on a very small tract of country, thereby occasioning some modification of their usual habits. As a proof of the distinctive features which sometimes form a strong contrast even between adjacent tribes, I may cite the extraordinary diversity in the character and customs of the Darling river tribes, which Sir Thomas Mitchell encountered in his second expedition into the interior; some of them being remarkable for the confiding and kindly feeling they displayed towards the exploring party, and the total absence of the slightest indications of