NEW HOLLANDERS. 
117 
sting-ray, but in winter any thing was acceptable. A young whale 
being driven ashore, was quickly cut in pieces and carried off. They 
broiled it only long enough to scorch the outside ; and in this, raw 
state they eat all their fish. They broil also the fern root, and 
another whose species is unknown. 
Among the fruit used by them, is a kind of wild fig, and the 
kernels of a fruit resembling the pine-apple. The principal part of 
their subsistence, however, is fish ; and when these happened to be 
scarce, they often watch an opportunity when the colonists haul 
the seine, and seize on such as fall within their reach. They some- 
times strike the fish from their canoes with their spears, sometimes 
catch them with their hooks and nets, contrary to the assertion of 
Dr. Hawkes worth, who says that none of these are to be met with 
among them. Their nets are generally made of the fibres of the 
flax plant, with very little preparation, and are strong and heavy ; 
the lines of which they are composed are twisted like whipcord. 
Some of them, however, appear to be made of the fur of animals, and 
others of cotton. The meshes of their nets are made of very large 
loops, artificially inserted in each other, but without knots. Their 
hooks are made of the inside of a shell, very much resembling mother- 
of-pearl. The canoes in which they fish are only large pieces of bark 
tied up at each end with vines ; and considering the slight texture of 
these vessels, the dexterity with which they are managed is admira- 
ble, as well as the boldness with which they venture in them out to 
sea. They generally carry fire along with them in these canoes, 
in order to dress their fish when caught. When fishing with the 
hook, if the fish appears too strong to be drawn on board with the 
line, the canoe is paddled to the shore, and while one man gently 
draws the fish along, another stands ready to strike it with a spear, 
in w'hich he generally succeeds. There is no reason for supposing 
them to be cannibals, though they always eat animal substances 
raw', or next to it. Some of their vegetables are poisonous when raw, 
but deprived of this property when boiled. A convict unhappily 
experienced this, by eating some in an unprepared state, in conse- 
quence of which he died in twenty-four hours. They dislike 
European provisions. If bread be given them, they chew it, and spit 
it out again, seldom choosing to swallow it. They like salt- 
beef, and pork rather better; but they originally could never be 
brought to taste spirits a second time, though this aversion is now 
overcome. 
The huts of these savages are formed in the most rude and barba- 
rous manner imaginable. They consist only of pieces of bark laid 
together in the form of an oven, open atone end, and very low, though 
long enough for a man to lie at full length. There is no reason, 
however, to believe that they depend more on them for shelter than 
on the caverns with which the rocks abound. 
We must not imagine that the custom ofgoing naked inures them so to 
the climate as to make them insensible to the injuries of the weather. 
The colonists had repeated opportunities of observing this, by seeing 
them shivering with cold in winter, or huddling together in heaps in 
their huts, or in caverns, till a fire could be kindled to warm them. 
