336 THEIR MODE OF FISHING. [CH. Vllt. 



Stranger, and ignorance of the manners of white men, 

 especially when accompanied, as in this instance, with an 

 openness of countenance and a frankness of manner, far 

 beyond the arts of dissimulation.* 



Lower down the Bogan, we saw so little of the inhabitants, 

 that I cannot characterize the tribes, although there appear 

 to be two more, the haunts of one being eastward of New- 

 Year's rano-e, those of the other, to the north of the Pink hills. 

 Both these tribes appeared to be of rather an inoffensive and 

 friendly disposition than otherwise, although quite ignorant 

 of our language. They were terrified at the sight of our 

 cattle, and even still more afraid of the sheep. 



Unlike the natives on the Darling, these inhabitants of the 

 banks of the Bogan subsist more on the opossum, kangaroo, 

 and emu, than on the fish of their river. Here fishing is left 

 entirely to the gins, but it is performed most effectually and 

 in the simplest manner. A moveable dam of long, twisted 

 dry grass through which water only can pass, is pushed from 

 one end of the pond to the other, and all the fishes are neces- 

 sarily captured. Thus, when at the holes where a tribe had 

 recently been, if my men began to fish, any natives who might 

 be near would laugh most heartily at the hopeless attempt. 



The gins also gather the large fresh-water muscle, which, 

 abounds in the mud of these holes, lifting the shell out of the 

 mud with their toes. There is a small cichoraceous plant 

 with a yellow flower, named Tdo by the natives, which 

 grows in the grassy places near the river, and on its root, 

 the children chiefly subsist. As soon almost as they can 

 walk, a little wooden shovel is put into their hands, and 

 they learn thus early to pick about the ground for those 

 roots and a few others, or to dig out the larvte of ant- 

 hills. The gins never carry a child in arms as our females 

 do, but always in a skin on the back. The infant is 

 seized by an arm and thrown with little care over the 



• I have since been informed by an officer, who had been some time in Ca- 

 nada, tliat he noticed, when on sliooting excursions witli the Indians, tir.it 

 th( V observed a somewhat similar siloiiro on meeting with strangers. 



