Daily national Democrat., 1858-11-04

HAIRLESS RACE OF AUSTRALIAN ABoRIGINEs.
In yesterdays Bulletin we alluded to the re-
cent discovery in New South Wales of hair
less race Of aborigiDes The subject is excl
ting much speculation in the Australian
journals, and from them we CLEAN some ad-
dtional Information about this new species
of the genus homo. 1t appears that certain
Mr.. Roberts, civil engineer and surveyor at
Sydney, had for nine months lately been pro-
fessionally engaged in the survey Of squatting
stations in the Barwan district, and in the
exploration of the new runs in the vicinity
of Big River, the Corga aud the Balonne. all
rivers in New South Wales. During his so.
journ on the last named, he encountered
some of these "hairless savages." They com
prised a family of six, namely, male and
female with four piccaninny pledges of their
aifcction-all destitute of capillary ornaturc
This total absence of hair, and even of down,
from their bodies, was attributed by Mr.
Roberts either to some climatic disease, as
the scrofulous and ricketty condition of their
physigue would seem to suggest-or else, to
the intense action of the tropical heat of those
ATTITUDES on constitutions not organized for
the endurance of such high temperature
The complexion of these savages, which is of
Il copper color, less dark than that of the
North American Indians, and partaking more
of the Mexican tint with their other physi
ognomic pecularities, point TO their ethno-
graphic history rs being totally distinct from
those of the aboriginal inhabitants of Aus
trala with whom people have been hitherto
familiar 1t appears from the accounts in
the Sydney papers that no mention or allu-
sion to vast gold mines in the deep interior
of the Australian continent was made by the
party, nor did they exhibit any of those or
naments with which even the unciyilized
denizens of auriferous districts love to deco
rate their bodies. 1t is not improbable that
this isolated family is the produce Of an in
termiXture of the Malays and the northwest
crn black tribes of Australia, driven from the
arid sands of the interior by continuous ard
excessive drought, or that they are the rem
nant of some long extinct and civilized ma
ton retreating before the irruption of some
powerful and barbarous hordes. 1t appears
that the natives to the north and west of the
colony of New South Wales evirce an antip-
athy to the growth of hair on certain por-
tions of their bodies and for its removal en-
ploy a peculiar depilatory process,
Since, then the existence of such a pecu-
liar species of the human race is attested by
independent and credible witnesses, separa-
ISu u} ulsluuct, WlbuouJ lloSolDlluy ul coui'
munication or collusion--as the Sydney pa
pers unite in decaring--it is not improbable
that the unknown interior of the continent
of Australia may furnish history analogous
to that of Central America or Japan, and
that the dreary waste of burning sands with
in which past explorations have been con-
fined. is but the natural boundary as we'll of
the British settlements on the eastern coast as
of some vast and ancient empire beyond it.
This barrier once o'erstepped, we may be in.
troduced to some new family of the human
race. or to its history or remaims-to a re-
gion studded with the monuments of civil
zation either existent or extinct.
AS might be expected the journals of New
South Wales call upon travellers and men of
science, and squatters on the confines of the
settled districts and deep and dreary waste,
to do all they can to elucdate the mystery IN
which the origin and locate of these strange
hairless beings are involved. Farther lntor-
nation from Australia on this subject will be
awaited with much interest.-BulletiH.