BARK HUTS. 
303 
rial, but presenting an appearance of durability that 
the others do not possess. In this case they are 
generally well covered over with grass, creeping 
plants, or whatever else may appear likely to render 
them waterproof. In travelling through the country, 
I have found that where bushes or shrubs abounded, 
I could at any time in an hour or two, by working 
hard, make myself a hut in which I could lie down, 
perfectly secure from any rain. The natives, of 
course, have much less difficulty in doing this, from 
their great skill and constant practice. In many 
parts of New Holland that I have been in, bark is 
almost exclusively used by the natives, for their 
huts ; where it can be procured good it is better 
than any thing else. I have frequently seen sheets 
of bark twelve feet long, and eight or ten feet wide, 
without a single crack or flaw, in such cases one sheet 
would form a large and good hut ; but even where 
it is of a far inferior description, it answers, by a 
little system in the arrangement, better than almost 
any thing else. Projecting, or overhanging rocks, 
caverns, hollows of trees, &c. &c., are also frequently 
made use of by the natives for lodging houses in 
cold or wet weather. When hostile parties are sup- 
posed to be in the neighbourhood, the natives are 
very cautious in selecting secret and retired places 
to sleep. They go up on the high grounds, back 
among scrubs, or encamp in the hollows of water- 
courses, or where there are dense bushes of poly*- 
gonum, or close belts of reeds ; the fires are very 
