NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 
167 
properties, totalling nearly 1,700 acres, it now sees that it 
requires statutory powers of preserving order, which as a mere 
Limited Company it does not possess, and a permanent general 
fund far exceeding the present ^400. Having secured and paid 
for Gowbarrow and obtained the option of purchasing two other 
valuable properties on Derwentwater, one of the most pressing 
demands which the Trust has now to make upon the purses of 
its supporters is for ^1,000 for the necessary repairs of Barring- 
ton Court, the shell of a glorious Tudor mansion which has been 
practically given to the Trust, i.e., to the nation. 
Commons and Footpaths Preservation Society. — We 
have spoken recently of the excellent results of this Society’s 
work, especially in connection with the Nettlebed Commons and 
Hindhead. We notice from their recently issued Report that 
^750 is needed before March, 1907, to secure Purley Beeches ; 
but some /"850 is also most urgently required to relieve the 
guarantors, whose prompt and public-spirited action obtained 
Hindhead as a permanent open space. 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 
392. The Truth in De Rougemont’s Stories. -Mr. Chisholm, a 
close observer of Nature, who lives near Townsville in North Queensland, writes 
as follows to a correspondent : — 
“ We read De Rougemont’s story of the Bottle-tree ( Sterculia rupestris). No 
doubt you have often seen these trees. About here, northwards, in stony country, 
they grow fairly large, say to 3 ft. diameter in the centre, enlarged from 2 ft. at 
the ground and diminishing to a foot at the top, and perhaps 16 to 20 ft. high. 
(It belongs to the same tribe as “ currajong.”) The trunk is clear of branches. 
In some of the scrub of the Dawson and Belzando the blacks scoop out the pulp, 
and use the boat-shaped tree trunk as a canoe, and it makes a good one — I mean 
the half of the trunk. The pulpy substance in the trunk resembles tapioca, and 
after periods of heavy wet contains much water, and I dare say tears of water 
would run from a chop into the trunk ; at any rate by sucking and chewing the 
pulp a famishing man could support life for a while ; so the story is not all 
romance, except that I have to add that men do not usually perish for want of 
water in a country where the bottle-tree grows, for it does not thrive in rainless 
districts. 
“ Another story of De Rougemont’s that made some amusement is the one of 
riding the turtles. It is not all romance. As a boy I used to go to an island on 
the coast here, in a cutter with a kinsman. The place was uninhabited and a 
breeding pond for turtle. Large ones often came out on the sand, and remained 
as if asleep. It used to be good play for a boy to creep up and jump on to the 
turtle, and ride to the water, for it at once ran there. More often I fell off on 
the way, and, if not, at once quitted in the surf. 
“ De Rougernont’s other story of the flying wombats, of course, made readers 
incredulous. The wombat is a big mole, the size of a spaniel, lives underground, 
and is rare in all places except cold mountainous heights, among bracken. 
Somehow he seemed to get the flying fox bat confounded with the wombat.” 
393. Gabriel’s Hounds. — Dr. Wright, in his great English Dialect 
Dictionary says: “This is a name given to a peculiar sound, probably 
occasioned by flocks of wild geese or fowl, but popularly assigned to a spectral 
