Page:The Native Tribes of South Australia (1879).djvu/46

 xxxvi INTRODUCTION. full of information. Without wishing to censure those who ruled the province in its early days, it seems astonishing, in a scientific age, to find that nothing was done officially to preserve the native tongue from extinction, and that what has been done, has been done as a labour of love, by private individuals, without other encouragement than that which the love of science for its own sake could afford. At this period it is unavailing, even to deplore the fact; but publications, such as those which are now coming before the world relating to the Australian Aborigines, might and ought to form incentives to the different Governments to take measures to preserve some official memorials of those tribes which are still living in the interior. If the natives of this continent, or even a portion of them, had been as united as the New Zealanders, a different tale would have been told. The task of colonising the country would not have been as easy as it has been; and if it had become necessary to deprive them of their lands by conquest, or to gain them by purchase, their heroism or acuteness would have invested them with an interest and importance which would have forced their natural claims no less than those pertaining to science upon the attention of the superior race, and of those by whom they were governed. The similarity which has been alluded to as prevailing all through the continent amongst the natives in language, manners, and customs, is observable also in their physical characteristics. When any marked departure from the general type is seen, it may be attributed to the abundance or scarcity of food. Those who live in the neighbourhood of rivers and lakes, where game of all kinds is plentiful, are the most robust. The physique of the native is always better in such localities than it is in those tracts of country where water, vegetation, and animals are scarce. As a rule, the male is strong and well-built, and between five and six feet in height. The forehead is broad and the mouth wide, the nose flat, the eyes brilliant and piercing, though somewhat deeply set in the head;* the hands and feet are moderately sized and well-shaped, but the calves of the legs and the muscles of the
 * Professor Owen gives the facial angle as 85 degrees.