416 NEW SOUTH WALES. [( HAP. xix. 



Everywhere \ve have an open woodland, the ground being partially 

 covered with a very thin pasture, with little appearance of verdure. 

 The trees nearly all belong to one family, and mostly have their 

 leaves placed in a vertical, instead of, as in Europe, in a nearly 

 horizontal position : the foliage is scanty, and of a peculiar pale 

 great tint, without any gloss. Hence the woods appear light and 

 shadowless : this, although a loss of comfort to the traveller under 

 the scorching rays of summer, is of importance to the farmer, as it 

 allows grass to grow where it otherwise would not. The leaves are 

 not shed periodically : this character appears common to the entire 

 southern hemisphere, namely, South America, Australia, and the 

 Cape of Good Hope. The inhabitants of this hemisphere, and of 

 the intertropical regions, thus lose perhaps one of the most glorious, 

 though to our eyes common, spectacles in the world the first 

 bursting into full foliage of the leafless tree. They may, however, 

 say that we pay dearly for this by having the land covered with 

 mere naked skeletons for so many months. This is too true ; but 

 our senses thus acquire a keen relish for the exquisite green of the 

 spring, which the eyes of those living within the tropics, sated 

 during the long year with the gorgeous productions of those glow- 

 ing climates, can never experience. The greater number of the 

 trees, with the exception of some of the Blue-gums, do not attain 

 a large size ; but they grow tall and tolerably straight, and stand 

 well apart. The bark of some of tho Eucalypti falls annually, or 

 hangs dead in long shreds which swing about with the wind, and 

 give to the woods a desolate and untidy appearance. I cannot 

 imagine a more complete contrast, in every respect, than between 

 the forests of Yaldivia or Chiloe, and the woods of Australia. 

 : At sunset, a party of a score of the black aborigines passed by, 

 each carrying, in their accustomed manner, a bundle of spears and 

 other weapons. By giving a leading yonng man a shilling, they 

 were easily detained, and threw their spears for my amusement. 

 They were all partly clothed, and several could speak a little 

 English : their countenances were good-humoured and pleasant, and 

 they appeared far from being such utterly degraded beings as they 

 have usually been represented. In their own arts they are admir- 

 able. A cap being fixed at thirty yards distance, they transfixed it 

 with a spear, delivered by the throwing-stick with the rapidity of an 

 arrow from the bow of a practised archer. In tracking animals or 

 men they show most wonderful sagacity; and I heard of several of 



