104 FORMIDABLE INSECTS. [CH. V. 



and where the grass was good. We here caught a large cod- 

 perch, this heingby far the best of the tliree kinds hitherto 

 found by us. Latitude observed 29° 12' 3" S. 



Feb. 3. — The course of the river compelled me to travel 

 still further southward, which direction I accordingly pursued 

 for seventeen miles, occasionally taking slight turns south- 

 eastward, in order to avoid either the bends of the river, or 

 hollows containing lagoons. One of these, which we arrived 

 at, after travelling about thirteen miles, was a very extensive 

 sheet of water, a pleasing sight to us, still remembering 

 how recently and frequently we had sought that life-sustain- 

 ing element in vain. This latter had firm banks, resembling 

 the ancient channel of a river, although the bed was evi- 

 dently much higher than the water flowing in the channel, 

 we were then exploring ; and it was further remarkable, in 

 being contracted at one part by masses of a very hard rock, 

 consisting of grains and small pebbles of quartz, cemented 

 in a hard ferruginous matrix, probably felspar. 



At seventeen miles we entered a plain, where grew trees 

 of the acacia pendula, and we traversed it in the most elon- 

 gated direction or to the south-west. On entering the wood 

 beyond, a sudden, extreme pain in my thigh made me shout, 

 before I was aware of the cause. A large insect had fas- 

 tened upon me, and on looking back, 1 perceived Souter, "the 

 Doctor," defending himself from several insects of the same 

 kind.* He told me that I had passed near a tree from which 

 their nest was suspended ; and it appeared that this had been 

 sufficient to provoke the attack of these saucy insects, who were 

 l)iovided with the largest stings I had ever seen. The pain 

 1 felt was extreme, and the effect so permanent, that when 

 I alighted in the evening, from my horse, on tliat leg, not 



* Genus, Vespa ; subgenus, Abispa ; »x<cc'\qs, Abispa Australiana (inihi). 

 Hcixd, antenna;, and feet yellow ; eyes black ; tlie scutelluin of protliorax yellow; 

 the seutuin of rnesotliorax blaek, with the scutelluin yellow ; the scutum of 

 metathorax yellow, with the scutellum black, and the axillie yellow. The 

 wings yellow, with duoky tips. The first segment of abdomen has the petiole 

 black. The second segment is black, and the rest yellow. 



