6o Voyage of the Novara. 



after craniological specimens to Long Bay, twelve miles dis- 

 tant, among wliose thickets a few natives had been residing; 

 for some weeks. The road thither passed through gmn-tree 

 forests, varied by wide grass plains covered with the many- 

 blossomed Meirosidero, with its long deep red stamens, and 

 brilliant 3Ielaleuca, its twigs also nearly covered with white 

 flowers, among which rose the tapering flower-stem, ten or 

 twelve feet high, of tlie Xanthorrhea, something like reed-mace, 

 surrounded by flights of humming-birds, which were imbibing 

 its delicious nectar with theii' long bills. Great quantities of 

 little birds were swarming about the brushwood and rushes, 

 occasionally coming quite trustfully so close to us that we 

 could have caught them with a butterfly net. We had been 

 riding perhaps an hour or two when Mr. Hill suddenly be- 

 gan to call in the native manner. Those forthwith summoned 

 by this quite unique sound replied from the thicket, as 

 if recognizing the approach of a friend, and in a minute 

 or two more we found ourselves in the midst of a number of 

 aborigines of both sexes, mostly naked, or with a coarse 

 woollen cloth around them, lying at full length on the ground 

 in listless ease. Close by was a fire, over which was sus- 

 pended a kettle filled with water. A couple of mang}^ hounds 

 covered with sores were basking in the sun, heedless of the 

 footfall of our horses, lying as indifferent as their masters till 

 we had dismounted and seen our beasts attended to. 



It is extraordinary to see how few necessaries these people 

 seem to have, and how little ambition they have to better 



