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SOCIAL CONDITION AND DOMESTIC HABITS.
POPULATION.
Several writers have given calculations as to the number of native inhabitants to each square mile in Australia.

Now, although I have done my utmost to draw up tables which might even convey an approximate result, I have found the number of inhabitants to a square mile to vary so much from district to district, from season to season, and to depend upon so great a variety of local circumstances, that I am unable to give any computation which I believe would even nearly approach the truth; and as I feel no confidence in the results which I have obtained, after a great deal of labour, I cannot be expected to attach much importance to those which, to my own knowledge, have in several instances been arrived at by others from mere guesswork.
NATURAL PERIOD OF LIFE.
With regard to the age occasionally attained by the natives I believe very erroneous ideas have been prevalent, for so far am I from considering them to be short-lived that I am certain they frequently attain the age of seventy years and upwards.

As they themselves have no knowledge whatever of their age it is manifest that merely speculative ideas upon this point must be useless; the means therefore that I adopted to arrive at a probable conclusion may be illustrated by an example: In the table I have given of a family descending from two natives, Nardooitch, and Kimbeyenung (Appendix A) the name of Yenna will be found as one of Wundall's children; now (1840) Yenna is a young man of about twenty years of age, and from the usual habits of the natives we must allow that his father, Beewullo, was at least twenty-three years old by the time he had married and had a child; such being the case, Beewullo must now be about forty-three, and Jeebar his father must by the same reasoning be about sixty-six, yet he is alive and in perfect health, and his elder brother Nogongo is likewise alive, and as upright as possible, although the infirmities of old age are creeping on him.

Nogongo must be now at least sixty-eight years old, yet I have seen two other natives who, by his and their own account, are older than he is; and on making a calculation, in the way I have just done, to ascertain their age, it appeared that one of them was sixty-nine and the other seventy-one; so that, although probably none of these estimates are quite correct, I still think that we are at liberty to infer, from various instances of this kind, that the natives sometimes attain a very advanced age; yet were these instances of longevity contrasted with the great number of deaths which take place during the period of infancy, there can be no doubt whatever that the average duration of life amongst these savage tribes falls far short of that enjoyed by civilized races.