INLAND TKIBES. 
225 
with wild yams, and the roota of a niali called ' maro- 
wait/ constituted their chief vegetable food. The yams 
were described by Timbo as overspreading the face of the 
country. Their animal food consisted of the kangaroo, 
op OS sum J and wild-fowl (which last abounded upon the 
lakes);, with a few freah-water fish, 
Timbo, on returning to the settlementj informed us 
that a large party of inland natives purposed visiting us 
in the autumn, the season usually selected by them for 
making distant excursions. This information proved to 
be correct^ for, in the month of September, volumes of 
smoke were seen rising to the south-east, which, as our 
natives informed us, indicated that a party of people was 
advancing towards the coast, and burning the dry grass 
for the purpose of driving out the kangaroos, which are 
then easily speared in the confusion. We were, however, 
in a certain degree disappointed, for the party, which 
consisted of about forty men, halted a few miles to the 
south of the settlement, and, after remaining there a few 
days, returned into the inteiior without visiting the camp. 
Yet some little inter conrse took place, for on two or three 
occasions the men who were employed in tending the 
cattle in the forest, accidentally met with them. I tliink 
it probable that they sometimes approached the settle- 
ment sufficiently close to see what was going on, for, on 
returning one day from a shooting excursion, I encoun- 
tered the entire party in the pathway, about half a nule 
from the houses. They stopped short on seeing me, and 
appeared to be iaclined to run away, but after a little 
deliberation they squatted down in a row by the way-side, 
L 3 
