ideas of this people.  As far as my own observation has extended, I have found that particular districts, having a radius perhaps of from ten to twenty miles, or in other cases varying according to local circumstances, are considered generally as being the property and hunting-grounds of the tribes who frequent them.  These districts are again parcelled out among the individual members of the tribe.  Every male has some portion of land, of which he can always point out the exact boundaries.  These properties are subdivided by a father among his sons during his own lifetime, and descend in almost hereditary succession.  A man can dispose of or barter his land to others; but a female never inherits, nor has primogeniture among the sons any peculiar rights or advantages.  Tribes can only come into each other’s districts by permission, or invitation, in which case, strangers or visitors are always well treated.  The following extract from Captain Grey’s work gives the result of that gentlemen’s observations in Western Australia, corroborated by Dr. Lang’s experience of the practice among the natives of New South Wales, (vol. ii. p. 232 to 236.)

“Traditional laws relative to landed property.—­Landed property does not belong to a tribe, or to several families, but to a single male; and the limits of his property are so accurately defined that every native knows those of his own land, and can point out the various objects which mark his boundary.  I cannot establish the fact and the universality of this institution better than by the following letter addressed by Dr. Lang, the Principal of Sydney College, New South Wales, to Dr. Hodgkin, the zealous advocate of the Aboriginal Races: 

“Liverpool, 15th Nov. 1840.

“My Dear Friend,—­In reply to the question which you proposed to me some time ago, in the course of conversation in London, and of which you have reminded me in the letter I had the pleasure of receiving from you yesterday, with the pamphlets and letters for America, viz.—­’Whether the Aborigines of the Australian continent have any idea of property in land,’ I beg to answer most decidedly in the affirmative.  It is well known that these Aborigines in no instance cultivate the soil, but subsist entirely by hunting and fishing, and on the wild roots they find in certain localities (especially the common fern), with occasionally a little wild honey; indigenous fruits being exceedingly rare.  The whole race is divided into tribes, more or less numerous, according to circumstances, and designated from the localities they inhabit; for although universally a wandering race with respect to places of habitation, their wanderings are circumscribed by certain well-defined limits, beyond which they seldom pass, except for purposes of war or festivity.  In short, every tribe has its own district, the boundaries of which are well known to the natives generally; and within that district all the wild animals are