the Winter Months, in Neia South Wales. 1 ] 3 



and the whole family are located between the rocks and the river, 

 on a slope naturally grassy, but a part of which has been con- 

 verted into a garden, chiefly planted with grape vines. Near the 

 house we conversed with a party of blacks, who were assembled 

 in the bush around a small fire, on which they had been cooking 

 some fish. We had seen two of them spearing fish in the river, 

 which they do with great dexterity, both from logs lying with 

 one end in the river, and from their canoes. Their fish-spears 

 are made of long pieces of wood, with a socket at one end, into 

 which four long wooden prongs are fixed, by means of the yellow 

 gum of a species of grass tree (Xanthorrhoe^a), and some string. 

 Their canoes are made of single sheets of bark drawn together 

 in folds at the ends, by heating them over a fire, and tied so as 

 to keep them in that state : a few sticks are placed across and 

 bent to the inside, so as to keep the canoe properly open. These 

 canoes will accommodate two persons. They are propelled by 

 ■means of paddles put perpendicularly and alternately into the 

 water by a man sitting on his knees ; and are made to move very 

 steadily and rapidly, in the direction of the face of the person who 

 propels them. Sometimes a fire placed on a stone is carried in 

 the canoe. The natives look for fishes about dead logs in the 

 river, and bring their spears almost close to them before they 

 strike : they seldom miss their prey, which they generally trans- 

 fix near the head. 



On some sandy table land we saw Hakear acicularis, Greviilea 

 sphacelata, and a variety of other shrubs, in blossom. There 

 was a species of Callitris 20 ft. high, with spherical cones; and, 

 by the side of the river. Eucalyptus robusta was in flower. This 

 tree is quite distinct from the one that attains such great magni- 

 tude in Van Diem en's Land (see Gardener' s Magazine, vol. xi. 

 p. 570.), which is called there stringy-bark, and which is probably 

 Eucalyptus obliqua. The remarkable elkshorn fern (Acros- 

 lichum alcicorne) is very common in fissures of the sandy rocks, 

 in this part of New South Wales: occasionally it is found on 

 trees, and at a great height up. 1 saw one mass of it to-day, 

 encircling the upright slender trunk of a tree, by the side of a 

 creek of fresh water. 



June 15. — We took a walk in the afternoon, and enjoyed the 

 fine clear weather of an Australian winter. The thermometer is 

 often a few degrees above 60° in the shade at noon, and about 

 45° in the evening, when the cold is sensibly felt, and we are glad 

 of fires. 



(^To be continued.) 



K 3 



