FOOD. 
245 
sire parts of Australia, I have found the sorts of food vary from 
latitude to latitude, so that the vegetable productions used by 
the Aborigines in one are totally different to those in another ; 
if, therefore, a stranger has no one to point out to him the vege- 
table productions, the soil beneath his feet may teem with food, 
whilst he starves. The same rule holds good with regard to 
animal productions ; for example, in the southern parts of the 
continent the Xanthorrea affords an inexhaustible supply of 
fragrant grubs, w r hich an epicure would delight in, when once 
he has so far conquered his prejudices as to taste them ; whilst 
in proceeding to the northward, these trees decline in health 
and growth, until about the parallel of Gantheaume Bay they 
totally disappear, and even a native finds himself cut off from 
his ordinary supplies of insects; the same circumstances taking 
place with regard to the roots and other kinds of food at the 
same time, the traveller necessarily finds himself reduced to 
cruel extremities. A native from the plains, taken into an 
elevated mountainous district near his own country, for the 
first time, is equally at fault. 
“ But in his own district a native is very differently situated ; 
he knows exactly what it produces, the proper time at which 
the several articles are in season, and the readiest means of 
procuring them. According to these circumstances he regulates 
his visits to the different portions of his hunting ground ; and 
I can only state that I have always found the greatest abundance 
in their huts.’’ 
It is evident therefore that a European or even a 
stranger native would perish in a district capable 
of supplying the necessaries of life, simply because 
he had not the experience necessary to direct him 
where to search for food, or judgment to inform him 
what article might be in season at the particular 
time of his visit. It is equally the same with re« 
