CIVILISATION OF THE ABORIGINES.

Some adequate provision for their civilisation and maintenance is due on our part to this race of men, were it only in return for the means of existence of which we are depriving them.  The bad example of the class of persons sent to Australia should be counteracted by some serious efforts to civilise and instruct these aboriginal inhabitants.  That they are capable of civilisation and instruction has been proved recently in the case of a number who were sentenced for some offence to be confined with a chaingang on Goat Island in Sydney harbour.  By the exertions of Mr. Ferguson, who was I believe a missionary gentleman, these men were taught in five months to read tolerably well, and also to explain in English the meaning of the Lord’s Prayer and Ten Commandments.  During that time they had been initiated in the craft of stone-cutting and building so as to completely erect a small house.  They grew fat and muscular and appeared really stronger men, when well fed, than the white convicts.

The natives have also proved very good shepherds when any of them have been induced, by proper encouragement and protection, to take charge of a flock.  Tommy Came-first, one of the lads who travelled with me, had previously tended sheep for a year and had given great satisfaction.

My experiment with the little native girl, Ballandella, will be useful I trust in developing hereafter the mental energies of the Australian aborigines for, by the last accounts from Sydney, I am informed that she reads as well as any white child of the same age.

CHAPTER 3.15.

Geological specimens collected. 
Connection between soil and rocks. 
Limestone. 
Granite. 
Trap-rocks. 
Sandstone. 
Geological structure and physical outline. 
Valleys of excavation. 
Extent of that of the Cox. 
Quantity of rock removed. 
Valley of the Grose. 
Wellington Valley. 
Limestone caverns. 
Description and view of the largest. 
Of that containing osseous breccia. 
First discovery of bones. 
Small cavity and stalagmitic crust. 
Teeth found in the floor. 
A third cavern. 
Breccia on the surface. 
Similar caverns in other parts of the country. 
At Buree. 
At Molong. 
Shattered state of the bones. 
Important discoveries by Professor Owen. 
Gigantic fossil kangaroos. 
Macropus atlas. 
Macropus titan. 
Macropus indeterminate. 
Genus Hypsiprymnus, new species, indeterminate. 
Genus Phalangista. 
Genus Phascolomys. 
Ph. mitchellii, a new species. 
New Genus Diprotodon. 
Dasyurus laniarius, a new species. 
General results of Professor Owen’s researches. 
Age of the breccia considered. 
State of the caverns. 
Traces of inundation. 
Stalagmitic crust. 
State of the bones. 
Putrefaction had only commenced when first deposited.