216 R. H. MATHEWS. 



water, I beg to state that Mr. Baines, 1 the artist of the expedition 

 under my command in 1856, told me that he had seen the abori- 

 gines boiling fish by putting heated stones into water collected in 

 small holes in the clay, on the banks of the Victoria River, in the 

 Northern Territory. Mr. Baines was a very careful observer of 

 aboriginal customs, and had been some years in South Africa, 

 where he had visited the ancient gold mines of the Transvaal, and 

 noted the evidence of their antiquity," 



I shall be pleased if any of the readers of this article can supply 

 some reliable information on this part of the subject, because it is 

 of considerable importance, the general belief being that the 

 aborigines of Australia were unacquainted with the use of hot 

 water in preparing their food. 



It has been reported by a number of observers, including myself, 

 that the aborigines over an extensive geographic area, when cook- 

 ing game in holes in the ground, poured small quantities of water 

 upon the hot clay and stones forming the floor of the oven, for 

 the purpose of creating steam to assist the cooking process. This 

 may be regarded as a step in the direction of acquiring a know- 

 ledge of the use of hot water in cooking game and vegetable 

 products. 



1 Mr. Baines also communicated this information to others, in a less 

 definite form. See "Aborigines of Victoria," by R. B. Smyth, Vol. l., 

 p. 37. Knowing that Mr. Baines had been out with Mr. Gregory, I 

 wrote to the latter gentleman to obtain fuller particulars, with the above 

 result. 



