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CHAPTER IX. 



Perch, and other fish-;- An elegant couple — Kangaroo dogs — 

 Black and wliite cockatoos — Vegetable productions — Mr. 

 O'Brien's farm — Herds of cattle — Bush life — Proceed to- 

 wards the Murrumbidgee river — A bush track — Romantic 

 country — Arrive on the banks of the Murrumbidgee — 

 Cross the river — Swamp oaks, and other trees — Remark- 

 able caves — Return to Yas — Superstitious ceremonies — 

 Crystal used in the cure of diseases — Mode of employ- 

 ing it. 



Large quantities of native perch are caught in 

 the Yas and Murrumbidgee rivers ; their flavour 

 is delicious : their average length is nineteen 

 inches, and the weight from three to six pounds : 

 they have however been taken from two and 

 a half to three feet in length, and weighing 

 seventy pounds ; and some even of the enormous 

 size of one hundred, and one hundred and twenty 

 pounds :* the breadth is great in proportion to 



* This fish is of the family of perches, and probably the 

 same as described by the French naturalists, as a new genus, 

 under the name of Gryptes Brisbanii. 



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