rol ' oi the old Enc;hsli song's, or the " t.il Idl of otu wlio knous 



T hope that none of those uho te.id this brief record ot ni} own 

 obseixations amU think tli.it F debiie to set n.yself up «^ ai 

 authonty <ilio\e all otheis From my earliest cU\> natuu 

 t.nour<d me iMth irreit powers ot olw'r'v ation, and a keen M^ht, 

 AvhiLh ^\hen put to the te,t has attorded astonishment to my 

 f iH nds L\en now m\ po^\els of \ision, in reading the smallest 

 pimt or Hi distmguishmi,' ol)]ects at long distances \\ithout 

 utdiLi.il aid, often surprise my younger folks Otlurs mIio 

 li\ea mote with the aborigines and weie favoured with betti r 

 opportunities of obseiving their peculiar habits than I e\ei had, 

 ha\e, I regret to say, done little or next to nothing to preser\e 

 the memorials of a now almost forgotten race. If I hav e -,uct eeded 

 in pieserMiig anything of value lespecting that rac(^ and its 

 language, it has been due to a cast of mind which lould not see 

 an unusual, howerer tri\ lal an tt\ent, A\ithout makine; i imntil 

 note of It, and also, to me, the utter unposiibiht) ot toi getting 

 facts and incidents Instead of piesentmg these facts in a hud. 



ot tlie general reader, and to make the mattei more attract 

 used a st^le a little more lacy than the dignity of the sub 

 might otherwise .illow, and T h.ive introduced mattei not evai 

 pertinent at all tunes to the subject di»cusied. My good intent 



Let the reader imagine himself learing Adelaide from the t 

 end of Rundle Street, the Park lands unfenced, his coui-«( 

 sonth easterly to Ptescots Section, thence due east ha\ 

 Kent Town, Norwood, and Kensington on his If ft iinid 

 Marryattville on his right the last house he passes is < ni wl 

 was occupied m 1847 by Colonel F reading still kMiiiu: ' 

 Mr. Shipster's Section on the left and f^urreror F* m - '>" 

 right As thirty long years have passed awny sim < 1 '^^ 



next to impossible A few iiundred vaid^ m fiom r\\< "'H' 



