Throughout Australia the natives exhibit a general conformity to one pattern, as regards features, color, and mental character. A man from Southern Gippsland would be recognised as an Australian by the inhabitants of Port Essington, and a native of King George's Sound would be surely known if taken to York Peninsula. The race, however, is not pure in all parts. The people of the islands of Torres Straits and the natives of New Guinea visit the mainland, and Australians cross the straits to New Guinea. They intermarry, and the half-breeds mix necessarily with their southern neighbours, and this may account for the appearance, as low down as the latitude of Wide Bay, of men with thrum-like hair.

Cape York is distant no more than ninety miles from the shores of New Guinea, the straits are studded with islands, and the coral reefs offer so much protection that the sea is usually as calm as the waters of a pond. The natives easily traverse this smooth sea in their large canoes; and there is consequently regular traffic between the peoples of the mainland and the smaller and greater islands.

The infusion of Papuan blood may not have entirely changed the character of any tribe, but it is there; and it is apparent where the Papuans have never been. This affects the people of the north-eastern coast. On the north the Australians mix occasionally with the Chinese.