lf of Carpentaria. The teeth of these people
were ALL PERFECT, an additional proof that the ceremony of knocking them
out, like others practised in Australia, is very partially diffused. The
rite of circumcision, for instance, is only performed at King's Sound, on
the west side of the Gulf of Carpentaria, and near the head of the
Australian bight on the south. Mr. Eyre, who discovered the existence of
the rite on the last-mentioned part of the continent, infers that the
natives of the places I have mentioned must have had some communication
with each other through the interior; but it is possible that at a
distant period of time, circumcision may have been very generally
practised, and that having become gradually disused, the custom is now
only preserved at two or three points, widely separated from each other.
I do not advance this as a theory, but simply as a suggestion, as there
is some difficulty in supposing communication to have taken place across
the continent.

MIGRATION OF THE NATIVES.

Some light may be thrown on the migration of the aboriginal inhabitants
of Australia, by tracing the parts of the coast on which canoes are in
use. It has already been mentioned, that we had not seen any westward of
Clarence Strait, neither were they in use in the bottom of the Gulf of
Carpentaria, nor on the south coast.* By the assistance of these and
similar facts, we may hereafter be enabled to discover the exact
direction in which the streams of population have flowed over the
continent. But I am not prepared to agree entirely with Mr. Eyre when he
concludes, as I have stated, from the fact of the rite of circumcision
having been found on the south and north-west coasts, and on the Gulf of
Carpentaria, that there exists any peculiar connection between the tribes
inhabiting those several points. This enterprising traveller moreover
thinks that the idea he has started goes far towards refuting the theory
of an inland sea, another presumption against which he maintains to be
the hot winds that blow from the interior.

(*Footnote. An inference may be drawn from the parts of the shore on
which canoes are in use, to show that the migrations of the natives, so
far southwards, have been along the coast. The raft they use is precisely
the same in make and size on the whole extent of the North-west coast.)

THEORY OF AN INLAND SEA.

I confess that the theory of an inland sea has long since vanished from
my mind, though I base m