254 
VEGETABLE FOOD. 
ditioned in that part of the country, as at the season 
of the year when they return from feasting upon 
this moth ; and their dogs partake equally of the 
general improvement. 
The tops, leaves, and stalks of a kind of cress, 
gathered at the proper season of the year, tied up 
in bunches, and afterwards steamed in an oven, 
furnish a favourite, and inexhaustible supply of 
food for an unlimited number of natives. When 
prepared, this food has a savoury and an agreeable 
smell, and in taste is not unlike a boiled cabbage. 
In some of its varieties it is in season for a great 
length of time, and is procured in the flats of rivers, 
on the borders of lagoons, at the Murray, and in 
many other parts of New Holland. 
There are many other articles of food among the 
natives, equally abundant and valuable as those I 
have enumerated : such as various kinds of berries, 
or fruits, the bulbous roots of a reed called the 
belillah, certain kinds of fungi dug out of the 
ground, fresh-water muscles, and roots of several 
kinds, &c. Indeed, were I to go through the list of 
articles seriatim, and enter upon the varieties and 
subdivisions of each class, with the seasons of the 
year at which they were procurable, it would at once 
be apparent that the natives of Australia, in their 
natural state, are not subject to much inconvenience 
for want of the necessaries of life. In almost every 
part of the continent which I have visited, where 
the presence of Europeans, or their stock, has not 
