Page:Dawson - Australian aborigines (1900).djvu/20

4 In the estimation of some of the earliest settlers, this calculation of the average strength of each tribe is too low; but, as they could not tell how many tribes or portions of tribes were seen by them at one time, the statements of the natives who attended these great meetings, and of those who remember the accounts given of them by their parents, are the most reliable.

On questioning old Weeratt Kuyuut—who was privileged as a messenger to travel among the tribes between the rivers Leigh and Glenelg—about the population of the Great Plains, which have Mount Elephant as a centre, he said the natives were like flocks of sheep and beyond counting.

At this date, July, 1880, there are only seven aborigines who speak the Chaap wuurong language, three who speak the Kuurn kopan noot language, and four who speak the Peek whuurong language.