President's address. 19 



The natives were expert hunters, and where permanent 

 water existed, had many ways of getting food, such as their 

 fisheries on the Barwon River, where large numbers of fish 

 were trapped by means of stone barriers. They caught ducks 

 with nets, sometimes 20 feet deep and 100 feet in length, 

 spanned across a river or creek, into which they scared the 

 frightened birds by throwing up an imitation hawk. Krefft 

 says,* "1 have seen from 50 to 100 ducks taken in this manner 

 at a single haul." Enormous quantities of eggs were also col- 

 lected by the natives in their wanderings, so that the increase 

 of the large birds was kept down in several ways. The peri- 

 odic droughts were much more far-reaching than in modern 

 days ; immense areas became waterless, and though the natives 

 often died, large quantities of game also perished. 



The grass-eating animals were kept so well in hand under 

 the systems adopted by the native hunters, and the car- 

 nivorous birds, that the grass was never eaten down as on 

 stocked land ; therefore, towards the summer months, it was 

 often several feet in height, and was regularly fired by the 

 natives, to enable them to get over the country, to catch 

 their game, and also to harass their enemies with grass-fires, 

 and attack them under cover of the smoke. 



Stuart was much troubled, when crossing from Adelaide to 

 the north coast, and was attacked several times under cover 

 of the clouds of smoke. At Frews waterholes, he had a 

 narrow escape. He says, "To-day they have set fire to the 

 grass round about us, and the wind, being strong from the 

 north-east, it travelled with great- rapidity. In coming into 

 the camp, three miles back, I and the two that were with me 

 narrowly escaped being surrounded by it ; it was as much as 

 our horses could get past it, as it came rolling and roaring 

 along in one immense sheet of flame and smoke, destroying 

 everything before it." 



Trans. Phil. Soc. N. 8. Wales, 1862-65. 



