Amongst the Aborigines of Encounter Bay and Lower Murray River (the Narrinyeri) the local groups (H. E. A. Meyer calls them "tribes,"[392] or "large families" of connected people) seem to be numerous (the country abounds with fish and birds). These local groups have their head-quarters, from which their name is derived. But only in cases of great abundance of food does the local group live and move together. Usually single families roam in parties; the sick and aged remain in the head-quarters, and suffer often from want of food. Not only in search of food, but for the sake of performing corroborees, initiations, etc., and visiting each other, do these local groups roam about the country.[393] [392] H. E. A. Meyer, _loc. cit._, p. 198. [393] H. E. A. Meyer, _loc. cit._, pp. 191, 192. From a passage in Taplin[394] we may infer that the local group of the Narrinyeri near Lake Alexandrina numbered about 200 natives.[395] The local groups of this tribe were, besides, exogamous, totemic, and had a regular form of government. We have not even a hint as to their mode of living; but if plentiful food supply was the chief condition of larger aggregations, then these latter would naturally have developed better in the lake country. [394] Taplin, _loc. cit._, p. 35. [395] _Ibid._, p. 36. Among the natives of Yorke's Peninsula there are local divisions; each with a certain totem and with headmen.[396] This seems analogous to the conditions among the Narrinyeri and Central tribes; but the information is not detailed enough to be considered quite reliable. [396] T. M. Sutton, _loc. cit._, p. 17. The Port Lincoln tribes seem to roam about in small parties of several families.[397] This statement is not sufficiently clear; probably a number of such parties constituted a local group. [397] Schürmann, _loc. cit._, p. 221. We read, again, about the Port Lincoln tribes: "Each family has its distinct place, where they live together."[398] The uncertainty as to the sense in which the word _family_ is used here makes this statement nearly useless. The same author says in another place: "It has been remarked that the population and general condition of the natives of Australia greatly depend on the nature of the locality they occupy; where the country is sterile and unproductive the natives are found to congregate in small numbers. In fertile districts they are comparatively numerous."[399] This opinion is in agreement with the fact that the population round Lake Alexandrina, where food supply was plentiful, was extremely dense.[400] [398] Chas. Wilhelmi, p. 178. [399] _Ibid._, p. 165. [400] Compare T. Gill, _loc. cit._, p. 223, on the authority of Dr. Moorhouse.