AUSTRALIA 267 



which in the overset had made their escape into the bush, they 

 proceeded on their way ; and after twenty -four miles of travel, 

 during which he rode but half an hour, they pitched their tent 

 for the night, and spread their blankets over a bed of gum- 

 tree twigs. Then came the tea-making. " A fire," he writes, 

 " was soon blazing in front of the open end of the tent, and a 

 kettle boiling thereon, into which, when boiled, a handful of 

 bohea was thrown, and presently it became tea. The head 

 waggoner proposed to put sugar in also ; but I begged first to 

 have my pannikin filled — and had it accordingly. Our meal 

 consisted of bread, cold pork, and mutton, the usual bush fare. 

 After supper we all lay down ; the two waggoners and myself 

 side by side ; the lady slept in one cart, and the convict under 

 the other, making himself as cosy as circumstances allowed 

 of, but decidedly in the worst place." 



Disappointment awaited him at Cape Biche also. "The 

 shore here," he writes, " bad for Algse ; very little to be 

 collected at low water, and I am therefore dependent on storms 

 for throwing up weeds. I take daily walks to the beach and 

 over the hills, but the land botany is very much over at this 

 season ; the plants out of flower, and the annuals vanished. 

 Some of the larger shrubs are, however, in perfection. In one 

 of my rambles, when returning to Mr. Cheyne's, I was inter- 

 rupted by an extensive bush fire. I could not flank it, so had 

 to face it, and soon selected a spot where the smoke was less 

 dense and the flames less noisy, and found no difficulty in cross- 

 ing the line, though blazing. Once over, I was merely walking 

 on burnt ground, every now and then either passing a " black 

 boy " (grass tree) or an ant-hill still on fire. Both these burn 

 long after the smaller matters are consumed. Along the 

 margin of the line of flames, a number of crows were hopping, 

 picking up the crickets and other insects as they fled from the 

 fire ; and troops of black cockatoos come to the burnt ground 

 to pick up the seeds which are plentifully scattered by the heat. 

 Most of the seeds here are contained in very strong, thick, 

 woody seed-vessels, which only split open after long basking in 

 i he hot sun, or after bush fires. Such are many of the 

 Proteacese {Banksia, Hakea,&c). The bush had been purposely 

 set on fire by Mr. C.'s men, for the double purpose of destroy- 

 ing the poison-bushes, aud to make the grass grow better, which 



