Mrs. Bates says the South-West Australians were divided into tribes or families; "these tribes appear to have been aggregated into geographical groups ... each occupied a definite tract of country."[442] But in another place she says that "each (family) occupied a definite tract of country" with well-marked boundaries.[443] This statement is marred by the lack of precision in using words like tribes, families, etc. The only thing that can be made out of it is that there was some local unit owning a definite tract of country. The right of ownership is defined by the right of hunting. A man is allowed to hunt merely his own district. But he has access to his wife's district too.[444] [442] _Loc. cit._, p. 53. [443] _Loc. cit._, p. 52. [444] _Loc. cit._, p. 53. In King George Sound each "tribe" (= local group) owns a certain district; this is further subdivided among individual families; each of these portions being hereditary in a certain family, which is proud of the extensiveness of its grounds. But all the members of the local group may roam and hunt over the whole territory. "Under normal conditions and in its own district the tribe (= local group) is divided into small parties or families; each party forming a camp of six or eight wurleys."[445] Only on special and important occasions does the local group aggregate. Strangers are not admitted to the territory. We see here, again, the actual proprietor of the land is the local group; families have some merely formal (or magical) claim to portions of it. The local group roams in parties, which are nevertheless not so very small. In from six to eight huts there may live from three to four families (we must count besides the married couples also the old people and grown-up children). [445] Browne, _loc. cit._, pp. 476, 478.