1 48 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



plants. We got back by dark, and I was very well satisfied with 

 our afternoon's work. 



The Salvation Army have a branch here, and whether intentional 

 or otherwise, I noticed that so long as I stayed at the hotel these 

 good people, with their band (which consisted of a very vigorous 

 cornet, drum, and triangle), used nightly to pay us a visit, and 

 perform close to the window of the room in which I used to lay 

 out my plants after having had dinner. 



Near to the settlement are two camps of blacks, and being 

 anxious to procure some eggs for my son, I drove over on our 

 way out to try to induce them to collect, as there were two 

 grown-up lads amongst them ; and, having shown them the blow- 

 pipe process, they promised to devote two days to collect a pair 

 of such eggs as was to be found in the district. I was much 

 pleased at the prospect, and, in an evil moment, gave them some 

 silver to procure, as they said, "some baccy"; but, instead of 

 this, they, it seems, went down to the township, and purchased 

 two new loaves and some mutton, the result being that when 

 I returned from my trip (which lasted two days), I found 

 them barely able to walk, let alone to climb trees. They 

 had not been out to look for eggs — another instance of the truth 

 of the old saying, never to pay beforehand. I felt very much 

 disgusted ; so, after using some slightly powerful language in 

 disapproval of their conduct, I left them. This little incident 

 has strengthened my previous convictions with regard to the 

 Australian aboriginals, viz., that they will not work if they can 

 at all help it, the proverbial Yarra-bank loafer being, in my 

 opinion, a smart business man compared with the average 

 Australian blackfellow. 



On the way out to the country lying to the N.W. of Border 

 Town, and working back into Victorian territory, we came across 

 some very good places for plants ; and it was close to the dis- 

 puted boundary where I found Xerotes Jimcea, new to Victoria, 

 it having previously been found in Western Australia only. I 

 saw a good many plants of it, but only the one in flower. The 

 country about here is very like the place where I had left off last 

 year, and many of the plants found were identical with those 

 found at and near Chinaman's Fiat, amongst the best of them 

 being Boronia Ji/ipes, Melaleuca Wilso/iii, Prostanthera chlorantha 

 (out of flower), Acacia farinosa v. glabra, &c., &c. Keeping a 

 north-westerly direction, on the way out to Red Bluff station, 

 we came across, also, some very likely country for plants ; and 

 about here were seen numerous tracks of kangaroos and wild dogs, 

 the latter being much too numerous in this scrubby country. 

 Thanks, however, to a plentiful supply of strychnine, coupled 

 with a constant vigilance, these dingo pests have been consider- 

 ably thinned out. Flocks of the southern stone plover were 



