NATIVE DWELLINGS. 
301 
oth er, in the form of a semicircle, as a protection 
from the wind, for the head, which is laid usually 
close up to this slight fence. In the winter, or in 
cold or wet weather, the semicircular form is still 
preserved, but the back and sides are sheltered by 
branches raised upon one end, meeting at the top 
in an arch, and supported by props in front, the 
convex part being always exposed to the wind. The 
sizes of these huts depends upon the facilities that 
may be afforded for making them, the number of 
natives, and the state of the weather.* 
* “ Travelled northerly for 20 miles ; at evening encamped at 
Tarcone, adjacent to the station (then being formed) of Drs. 
Bernard and Kilgour. The greater part of the servants at this 
establishment had been convicts, they were in a state of great 
insubordination. My native attendants pointed out an extensive 
weir, 200 feet long and five feet high ; they said it was 
the property of a family, and emphatically remarked, * ‘ that 
white men had stolen it and their country the Yow-ew-nil-lurns 
were the original inhabitants. 
“Tapoe,” the Mount Napier of Mitchell, is an isolated hill 
of volcanic formation; the crater is broken down on the west 
side to its base. The great swamp is skirted by low hills and 
well grassed open forest land; the natives are still the undisputed 
occupants, no white men having been there to dispossess them* 
The people who occupy the country have fixed residences; at one 
village were 13 large huts, they are warm and well constructed, 
in shape of a cupola or “ kraal a strong frame of wood is first 
made, and the whole covered with thick turf, with the grass 
inwards ; there are several varieties ; those like a kraal are some- 
times double, having two entrances, others are demicircular ; 
some are made with boughs and grass, and last are the temporary 
screens ; one hut measured 1 0 feet diameter by five feet high, 
and sufficiently strong for a man on horseback tq ride over. 
