6o AVOYAGETO 
'^vn ^' occafioned it to be, without having been properly 
V— J feafoned. , 
The yellow gum as it is called, is ftri6tly a refin, 
not being at all foiuble in water ; in appearance it 
llrongly refembles gamboge, but has not the property 
of llaining. The plant that produces it is low and 
fmall, with long graffy leaves ; but the frusStification 
of it flioots out in a lingular manner from the centre 
of the leaves, on a fingle ftraight ilem, to the height 
of twelve or fourteen feet. Of this Item, which is 
ftrong and light, like fome of the reed clafs, the natives 
ufually make their fpears ; fometimes pointing them 
vrith a piece of the fame fubftance made fliarp, but 
more frequently with bone. The relin is generally 
dug up out of the foil under the tree, not coUedled 
from it, and may perhaps be that which Tafman calls 
" gum lac of the ground." The form of this plant is 
very exaitly delineated in the annexed plate, and its 
proportion to other trees may be colle6ted from the 
plate, entitled, A View in New South Wales, in which 
many of this fpecies are introduced. 
The month of February was ufhered in by a very 
violent Horm of thunder and rain. The lightning ftruck 
and fliivered a tree, under which a ilied had been 
I ere(5ted 
