472 CHARLES DARWIN 



driving the natives into a cul-de-sac on Tasman's peninsula. 

 The attempt failed; the natives, having tied up their dogs, 

 stole during one night through the lines. This is far from 

 surprising, when their practised senses, and usual manner 

 of crawling after wild animals is considered. I have been 

 assured that they can conceal themselves on almost bare 

 ground, in a manner which until witnessed is scarcely credi- 

 ble; their dusky bodies being easily mistaken for the black- 

 ened stumps which are scattered all over the country. I was 

 told of a trial between a party of Englishmen and a native, 

 who was to stand in full view on the side of a bare hill ; if the 

 Englishmen closed their eyes for less than a minute, he 

 would squat down, and then they were never able to distin- 

 guish him from the surrounding stumps. But to return to 

 the hunting-match; the natives understanding this kind of 

 warfare, were terribly alarmed, for they at once perceived 

 the power and numbers of the whites. Shortly afterwards 

 a party of thirteen belonging to two tribes came in; and, 

 conscious of their unprotected condition, delivered them- 

 selves up in despair. Subsequently by the intrepid exertions 

 of Mr. Robinson, an active and benevolent man, who 

 fearlessly visited by himself the most hostile of the natives, 

 the whole were induced to act in a similar manner. They 

 were then removed to an island, where food and clothes 

 were provided them. Count Strzelecki states, 8 that " at the 

 epoch of their deportation in 1835, the number of natives 

 amounted to 210. In 1842, that is, after the interval of seven 

 years, they mustered only fifty- four individuals; and, while 

 each family of the interior of New South Wales, uncontami- 

 nated by contact with the whites, swarms with children, those 

 of Flinders' Island had during eight years an accession of 

 only fourteen in number ! " 



The Beagle stayed here ten days, and in this time I made 

 several pleasant little excursions, chiefly with the object of 

 examining the geological structure of the immediate neigh- 

 bourhood. The main points of interest consist, first in some 

 highly fossiliferous strata, belonging to the Devonian or 

 Carboniferous period; secondly, in proofs of a late small rise 

 of the land ; and lastly, in a solitary and superficial patch of 



Physical Description of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, p-354- 



