268 NEW SOUTH WALES. 



always hailed with joy by the traveller in these arid regions, as a sign 

 of the vicinity of water. The sound resembles the click of a stone- 

 hammer, and the effect of the united notes of several, is similar to the 

 frog concerts of our springs. According to Mr. Coxen, each bird 

 utters a single note. 



It was remarked that the native animals of Australia are fast disap- 

 pearing. The kangaroo, once so numerous, is now seldom seen ; but 

 the native dog still commits ravages among the sheep.* Some of the 

 animals which have become rare are preserved in the Sydney Museum ; 

 among these are the woombat (Cheropus), and the Ornithorhynchus, in 

 relation to which so many questions have been raised. Snakes of many 

 kinds still abound, even in the immediate vicinity of Sydney, whose 

 bite is said to be fatal, and which is of course much dreaded. The 

 stories that are related of such poisonous bites, and the dread of them 

 that animals show, make those who wander through the paths ex- 

 tremely cautious, particularly as their small size and grassy colour 

 render them difficult to be seen. 



Among the distinguished gentlemen of the colony, to whose hospi- 

 tality our naturalists were indebted, is John Blaxland, Esq., who resides 

 at Newington, on the river, near Paramatta. The ladies of his family 

 are in possession of a handsome hortus siccus of native plants, collected 

 and prepared by themselves. 



A part of this gentleman's estate consists of extensive salt-works, 

 formed by drawing the tide-water from the river into ponds. In these 

 it is evaporated as much as possible by the heat of the sun, and is 

 afterwards boiled. The quantity of salt made at these works during 

 the preceding year (1838) was one thousand tons. About seventy 

 assigned servants (convicts) are employed in the manufacture. 



The water of the ocean is far from being the only source of this 

 necessary of life in Australia. Salt springs are abundant, and almost 

 all the wells, particularly those of the sandstone region, are said to 

 afford only brackish water. The small streamlets, and in dry seasons 

 even the rivers, are found to be salt; and there is hardly a traveller or 

 navigator, but has given an account of his disappointment in finding 

 salt water, when every indication gave the promise of fresh. 



Major Mitchell attributes the occasional saltness of the Darling 

 river, to salt springs, or to its passing through beds of rock salt. This 

 river, as has been stated, has no tributary for more than six hundred 

 miles, and has at times little or no current; and it is where the stream 

 has no sensible motion, that the saltness is most marked. The salt 



* The natives had never attempted to domesticate the dog 1 , and all of the species found, 

 when the country was colonized, were wild. 



