SURPRISE SOME NATIVES. 
277 
dug for water in the sand. We had so completely 
taken them by surprise, that they were a good deal 
alarmed, and seizing their spears, assumed an 
offensive attitude. Finding that we did not wish 
to injure them, they became friendly in their man- 
ner, and offered us some fruit, of which they had a 
few quarts on a piece of bark. This fruit grows 
upon a low brambly-looking bush, upon the sand- 
hills or in the flats, where the soil is of a saline 
nature. It is found also in the plains bordering 
upon the lower parts of the Murrumbidgee, but in 
much greater abundance along the whole line of 
coast to the westward. The berry is oblong, about 
the shape and size of an English sloe, is very pulpy 
and juicy, and has a small pyramidal stone in the 
centre, which is very hard and somewhat indented. 
When ripe it is a dark purple, a clear red, or a 
bright yellow, for there are varieties. The purple 
is the best flavoured, but all are somewhat saline in 
taste. To the natives these berries are an important 
article of food at this season of the year, and to ob- 
tain them and the fruit of the mesembryanthemum, 
they go to a great distance, and far away from 
water. In eating the berries, the natives make use 
of them whole, never taking the trouble to get rid of 
the stones, nor do they seem to experience any ill 
results from so doing. 
Having unsaddled the horses, we set to work to 
dig holes to water them ; the sand, however, was 
very loose, and hindered us greatly. The natives, 
