90 
TRAVELS IN 
impenetrable thicket to moft animals except the rhinoceros, 
whofe hide, though not proof againft a mulket-ball, as has 
been afferted by a great naturahft, has little to fear from the 
fpines of the mimofa. The bark, being powerfully aftringent, 
is preferred to that of any other tree in the colony for prepar- 
ing leather from raw fkins ; and the wood, being hard and 
tough, is ufed for waggon-poles, and as lock-fhoes for the 
wheels. The trunk of the tree gives out great quantities of a 
clear tranfparent gum, which, however, does not feem to have 
been applied to any kind of ufe. It is remarkable that almoft 
every tree which furnifhes taftelefs gums or refms is covered 
with a bark that is highly aftringent and auftere to the tafte. 
The following day we crofted the bed of the Buffalo river, 
which was at leaft fifty yards in width ; but the quantity of 
water in it was barely fufficient to form a current. The deep 
fhelving banks, however, and the wreck of roots and fhrubs, 
indicated at leaft its periodical power, which had forced through 
the hlack mountains to the fouthward a grand chafm in its pafl"- 
age to the eaftern ocean. The whole furface of the country 
was here ftrewed over with fmall fragments of a deep purple- 
colored flate, that had crumbled away from the ftrata which in 
long parallel ridges lay in the diredion of eaft and weft. 
Scattered among thefe fragments were black tumified ftones that 
had much the appearance of volcanic fluggs, or the fcorise of an 
iron furnace. Several hills of the fhape of cones, fome trun- 
cated near the top parallel to their bafes, ftood detached from 
each other on the plain, apparently thrown up by volcanic ex- 
plofions ; but a nearer view of the alternate ftrata of earth and 
fand- 
