282 FLEAS. — A TRAMP INTO THE COUNTRY. 



to drink, Jack?" while everybody about seemed to 

 regard it as a matter of propriety. 



At night, as there were not beds sufficient for our 

 accommodation, we took a shake down in the dining- 

 room, using kangaroo-skins as blankets. We had 

 scarcely got settled, before we were rolling, pitching, 

 and tossing, by way of a forced accompaniment to 

 the flea-bites that were being inflicted upon us : the 

 numbers of these pests being myriads. Although 

 they are little heeded by those who are acclimated 

 here and inured to their tortures, yet to us thinner- 

 skinned gentry these fleas now proved objects of real 

 terror. For hours, sleep was out of the question. 

 All of us had been accustomed to considerable blood- 

 letting aboard from the bed-bugs that always infest 

 old ships in warm weather; but we were by no 

 means prepared for a wholesale depletion by these 

 vampires. At length, towards morning, we managed 

 to gain some intermission from their attacks, and 

 the sun had made a great portion of his daily journey 

 ere we broke our slumbers. 



After breakfast was over, we took a tramp, and 

 found that we were not deceived in our estimate of 

 the country. Instead of the sandy surface we had 

 been accustomed to see in the southern sections of 

 the colony, there was here an excellent soil, and the 

 appearance of the crops promised an abundant har- 

 vest; while the live stock we saw were in a good 

 condition. 



The trees here embrace all the varieties of the she- 

 oak, baukshire, mahogany, peppermint, blackberry 

 and raspberry jam, and some little way in the inte- 

 rior the precious sandal-wood is found. 



