270 A LONG RAMBLE IN QUEENSLAND 



timber-trees — iron-bark and other gums, and a variety of 

 curious and peculiar shrubs and trees which are not found 

 in the southern parts of the colony. Here there was an 

 immense variety of flowers, many of them remarkable for 

 strangeness of form and beauty of colour, but not one 

 possessing a pleasant scent, though one or two had an 

 exceedingly objectionable odour. 



For the next day or two we were passing through a 

 fertile country with woods and park-like scenery, and 

 here and there the partly dry bed of a stream. On these 

 beds we were dependent for a supply of water ; for though 

 few of them contained much more than mud in various 

 stages of dryness, we could generally obtain good water 

 by deepening the holes a few feet. Occasionally bushes 

 and trees were seen growing in the beds of those streams — 

 a sure sign that they were only occasionally filled with 

 running water. 



While travelling through this country we saw small 

 parties of the natives nearly every day, each consisting 

 of about twenty men, and as many women and girls, with 

 five or six children. Native fire-places were seen all over 

 the plain, so that this must be an unusually well-peopled 

 district ; yet game is not as abundant as it is in the 

 north-west. Vegetable productions are perhaps more 

 numerous. The bunya-pine is much relied on by the 

 blacks for a nourishing article of food ; insomuch that the 

 tree is protected by the Colonial Government on their 

 behalf; and the warren, or native yam, is very abundant. 

 The blacks cultivate this vegetable ; and we passed some 

 warren-grounds which were quite eight acres in extent. 

 The palatableness of the warren-roots is a matter of taste ; 

 but without question they are a very sustaining and valuable 

 food for the natives, and on occasion the whites are very 

 glad to eat them. 



On the 3rd June we had reached a large river, which 

 we thought must be the main stream of the Mitchell. It 

 was about forty yards wide at this time, but there was 

 evidence that it was a much larger stream in the wet 

 season. It was now easily fordable everywhere, as there 



