150 IN AUSTRALIAN WILDS 



While we were on Jack's Point Island the wind be- 

 came more boisterous, and whipped the lake into fury. 

 We began the return voyage under rather dangerous 

 conditions. The boat rocked like a leaf in a troubled 

 pool, and was kept afloat only by constant baling. We 

 were not sorry to reach Policeman's Point, where Bob 

 awaited us, and quickly provided billy tea, which 

 helped to warm our chilled bodies. The boatman 

 asked us to visit his home at Salt Creek, and we readily 

 agreed. It was a drive of four miles, and on the 

 way we passed several tea-tree swamps, which were 

 tenanted by hundreds of Black-tailed Native Hens 

 [Tribonyx ventralis}. They scurried over the mud 

 and up and down dark avenues in the thickets as 

 busily as ants on a foraging expedition. These quaint 

 birds, which resemble black bantams, sometimes ap- 

 pear in great numbers in different localities. Many 

 were seen in the streets of Adelaide in 1846, and in- 

 vasions of other cities have been recorded in later 

 years. 



Jim's home was like a little village, for there were 

 several detached buildings, inhabited by a numerous 

 family, and dogs and fowls were not lacking in the big 

 yard. The good wife, dusky-hued and buxom, proved 

 hospitable and generous. She presented us with 

 several native implements, notably a neatly shaped 

 stone, which had been used for pounding Nardoo 

 seeds. We learned that some two miles from the 

 creek there was a burial place, on an islet in the 

 middle of a swamp. The aborigines, instead of in- 

 terring their dead, wrapped the bodies in bark and 

 placed them on platforms among branches of stunted 

 trees. 



Returning to Woods Wells, we again became 

 guests of the boundary rider, starting for Meningie 

 on the following day. The journey was pleasant. 

 On the lake we saw great flocks of Grey Teal, Black 

 Ducks and White-eyed Ducks [Nyroca australis] . A 



