WATER GUM TREE. 305 



amusement, they displayed "much activity, and 

 in nearly every instance succeeded in regaining 

 the stone before it reached the bottom. The 

 competition among them to catch it, was highly 

 amusing. 



There were a number of the aborigines about 

 this farm, who made themselves occasionally 

 useful by grinding wheat, and other occupations ; 

 but no dependence can be placed upon their in- 

 dustry for they work when they please, and re- 

 main idle when they like; the latter being of 

 most frequent occurrence ; but they are encou- 

 raged for their valuable assistance in finding 

 strayed cattle, as they track the beasts with an 

 accuracy seldom or never attained by a Euro- 

 pean. 



The river's banks abounded in trees of enor- 

 mous size, and were profusely embellished with 

 elegant flowers. I saw a species of the Eucalyp- 

 tus, called the " Water Gum," full a hundred 

 feet in elevation, andsix or sevenfeet in diameter.* 



* Alluding to large trees, I heard a person, who had fully 

 persuaded himself of the fact, endeavour to impress his 

 auditors with the belief that a tree existed upon the estate 

 of the Van Dieman's Land Companynine hundred feet high ! ! ! 

 This gigantic vegetable production would certainly beat 

 " Raffle's flower," or " Crawford's root," and must be very 

 valuable if only as a gigantic curiosity. 



VOL. I. X 



