£S<5 HISTORY OF 



heaps of muscle shells found near each hut proved 

 the mud banks to be a principal source of food. 

 On an examination of their fire-places nothing, 

 except a few bones of the opossum, or squ 

 and here and there those of a small kangaroo 

 were discovered. 



The mode of taking the opossum seemed to 

 be similar to that practised in New South Wales, 

 except that they use a rope in ascending the 

 tree; for at the foot of a notched tree, about 

 eight feet of a two-inch rope made of grass was 

 found with a knot in it, near which it appeared 

 broken. 



To the canoe thev were strangers as one was 

 never met with, or was dny tree ever observed 

 to be barked in the manner requisite for this 

 purpose; though birds bred upon little islands to 

 which access might be had in the smallest canoe. 

 The roughness of the notches left bvthe stone 



O yl 



hatchet upon the bark of the trees bore no fa- 

 vourable testimony to its excellence. They 

 were rather the marks of a rough than of a 

 sharp edged tool, and seemed more beaten than 

 cut, which was not the case with the marks 

 left by the stone hatchet of New South Wales. 



The range of the thermometer, taken in vari- 

 ous parts of the port, was at night from 49° to 

 52°, and at noon from 58° to 64°. 



On the 20th of November they left Port Dalr- 

 rymple with a light breeze at N. E. and proceed- 

 ed slowly to the westward. At day-light the 

 following morning, the wind shifted to the W. 

 by N. which drove them back to Furneaux'o 



4 



