space, as the smoke that arose obscured all that quarter of the heavens.
We observed also that the ground about the burial tree had been submitted
to the flames, as if to keep away the few kangaroos that visit this spot.

This singular mode of disposing of the dead among the aborigines of
Australia, extends to the banks of the Murray River, on the south coast,
as we learn from Mr. Eyre's vivid narrative; and as we know that it
exists in New Guinea, we may fairly infer that so far we can trace the
migration of the population of the fifth division of the globe.*

(*Footnote. It is a curious circumstance to observe that the same custom
prevailed among the ancient Scythians, as we learn from Mr. St. John's
History of the Manners and Customs of the Ancient Greeks volume 3 page
345.)

REMARKS ON NATIVE RITES.

I have always considered that Eastern and Western Australia were
originally separated by the sea; and that when they were thus separated
(which the narrow space, and as I conjecture, lowness of the country
between the Gulf of Carpentaria and Lake Torrens fully bears out) the
habits of what is now the northern side of the continent found their way
to the southern. It is true I have in another place conjectured, that in
cases where similar habits are found to prevail at widely distant points,
they may be looked upon as relics of a former universal state of things,
now preserved only in particular localities; yet without invalidating
this general rule, I think that the facts of the mode of burial I have
described, and likewise the rite of circumcision, existing in the bottom
of the Gulf of Carpentaria, and on the south side of the continent,
strongly support the opinion that there once existed water communication