RED BLUFF. 483 



Leaving Hobson's Bay we passed along the east 

 shore of Port Phillip in search of a ledge of rocks, 

 reported to lie about three miles off Red Bluff, 

 which is eight miles to the southward of the above- 

 mentioned bay. We, however, found this danger to 

 be nothing more than the extreme of the reef 

 fronting that bluff for a distance of half a mile, in 

 a W. by N. direction, and which has three feet on 

 it at low water, with three fathoms just outside. As 

 the soundings gradually decrease to this depth, the 

 lead will always keep a ship clear of it. 



Anchoring under Arthur's Seat, I delivered the 

 letters with which Mr. Powlett, Commissioner of 



in •which the male insects were making an intolerable noise, I 

 directed my steps, and quietly sheltered myself from a hot wind 

 that was crossing the harbour, bringing with it a dense column 

 of smoke, which for a short time shut out the powerful rays of 

 the sun. I found that the ground about the root of the tree was 

 thinly covered with the sugar-like substance, and in a few 

 minutes I felt that a fluid was dropping, which soon congealed 

 on my clothes into a white substance. On rising cautiously to 

 ascertain from whence it came, with a full determination not to 

 disturb the insects but to watch their pursuits, I observed that 

 it was passing of a syrup-like consistence per aimm from the 

 cicadse. As it ran down the smooth branches of the gum-tree 

 and over the leaves it gradually congealed, and formed a white 

 efflorescence. Whilst ejecting this fluid, the insect raised the 

 lower part of the abdomen and passed off three or four drops in 

 sudden jets, which either streamed down the stem, or fell on 

 the leaves or ground. 



" I watched them for nearly half an hour, and in that space 

 of time observed between twenty and thirty distil this fluid, 

 which gradually concreted into a white substance. I collected 

 above three ounces, some of which I still have in my possession. 

 The natives gather it in their rush baskets and use it as a- part 

 of their food." 



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