254 THE PORT DARWIN DISTRICT 



and offered to shake hands, a convincing proof that this 

 tribe had had repeated intercourse with colonials. I shook 

 hands with them all, and so we parted excellent friends. 



Before they were out of sight the rain began to fall, 

 and during the night there was another heavy thunder- 

 storm. I took shelter as usual in a hollow-tree, but there 

 was at this spot a large banyan-tree which afforded pro- 

 tection to the horse also, for the branches and foliage were 

 so thick that scarcely any rain found its way to the ground 

 beneath. This was the first banyan-tree I had found in 

 the desert, and the furthest south I ever saw ; but round 

 about Palmerston, and in the extreme north, there are 

 many fine specimens of this tree. Are they indigenous ? 

 or how did they get here? In my opinion, it is evident 

 that, like the dingo dog and several other animal and 

 vegetable productions of the continent, they were origin- 

 ally exotics. The seeds of the banyan may have 

 been accidentally, or perhaps intentionally, introduced by 

 Asiatic voyagers ; but I think it is far more probable that 

 they were brought by migrating birds. I base this opinion 

 on the very scattered distribution of these trees. That 

 they are not found in the southern parts of the continent 

 is, no doubt, attributable to unsuitable climatic conditions. 



Throughout the next day there were heavy showers at 

 intervals, with clear, hot skies when the rain ceased. The 

 heat was so great that I was unable to continue the 

 journey, and during the night and following day I was too 

 unwell to travel. The horse also appeared very jaded, 

 and I attributed this and my own illness to the great 

 heat. 



For a day or two I was so unwell that I could not bear 

 the exertion of riding much, and probably did not travel 

 more than a dozen or twenty miles until the nth of the 

 month, when, having eaten nothing for thirty-six hours, 

 hunger compelled me to seek food. This I found in the 

 flesh of one of a couple of dingoes which came sneaking 

 round my camp in the early morning. At any other time 

 I should have been reluctant to taste such food, but the 

 smell of the roasting carcass was savoury enough, and I 



