NATIVES OF THE PALMER.

Dunstan Times, Issue 625, 10 April 1874, Page 3

NATIVES OF THE PALMER.

— o — the natives of the Palmer River country, the Government surveyor, air. Macmillan, says they are not very different in physical appearance from the other blacks of Queensland, though they are fine well.bnilt men; but they seem to have rather more and, perhaps, more pluck. Their spear-heads and ninny of their other toolsi'mre made of steel, principally socket chisels land other such things, which they must have got from wrecks, and which they kept in a wonderfully efficient state of sharpness, and have fitted to the handles in a very neat and artistic manner. Their (iillybags are different from those of more southern tribes, and are exactly similar to those brought from Mew Guinea by’some of the officers of the basilisk. One of the party happened to have one of these with him, and was able to compare it with the Cock blacks. These black-fellows have large canoes, from twenty to thirty feet long, dug out of cedar logs, and furnished with ont-riggers on one or both sides. Tluse'cauoes are similar to those in use by the Prince of Wales islanders and others iirthe neigboihood of Cape York, and the owners take g’eat pains both in the construction and maintenance of their vessels. The country is tolerably well supplied with kangaroo and some other game, and the physique of the blackfellows speaks plainly of abundant sustenance. But it is not adapted for grazing, and beef will probably be dear when the large population that may be expected is jat work on this field. If our northern cattleowners had not been in such a hurry in driving off their cattle todhe south, they might have made a rich harvest now. —Queenslander.