OF PLANTS. 231 



there arose the sweet smelling Acacias,* with their splendid 

 golden balls of blossom, often densely wound about with 

 enormous coils of the wild Vine.f In lighter spots the 

 harp-pheasant spread its glorious feathers, and pleased itself 

 by imitating all the natural sounds of this peculiar land, 

 indefatigably repeating the cry of the wild dog and the 

 chirp of the cicada. With some trouble had I worked 

 my way through this dense thicket, and had reached a 

 marshy district, now however dried up by the glowing 

 sun, and only exhibiting a few rills and puddles, which 

 alternating, in strange sport of Nature, with dense bushes 

 of gigantic Sedges and broad-leaved Rushes, served as 

 an abode for the ornithorynchus. Among the somewhat 

 better turf, a pleasant souvenir of the far-distant home attracted 

 my glance, the only one in this foreign land, and I stooped 

 gratefully to pluck the solitary little Daisy, when a loud 

 cry for help, mingled with shrieks and imprecations, 

 assailed my ears. I hurried towards the spot from whence 

 this sound, so unexpected in this wilderness, appeared to 

 come, and was not a little astonished at what I discovered 

 there. In the middle of a rocky pool stood a fat male 

 kangaroo, seven feet high, upright on his hind legs, on 

 the bank before him lay a dog bleeding from many wounds. 

 I lifted my gun and levelled, but my attention was 

 diverted by the countenance of a man which displayed 

 itself, scratched and bleeding, among the rushes on the 

 bank. I immediately ran to his assistance ; but while I 

 was helping him out of the mud, the * old man J f sought 

 safety in flight, and disappeared. The wounds of the 

 unlucky hunter were fortunately not so dangerous as they 

 looked, and he soon recovered himself sufficiently to be able 



* Acacia mollissima, affinis, &c. "\~ Cissus antartica. 



t The settlers call the male kangaroo " old man." 



