A Small Tree, With Stiff
Alternate Leaves Scarcely An Inch Long, Was Covered With Red Fruit Of The
Form Of An Acorn, And About Half An Inch Long, Having A Sweet Pericarp
With Two Compressed Grain-Like Seeds, Which Had The Horny Albumen Of The
Coffee, And Were Exceedingly Bitter.
The pigeons, crows, and cockatoos,
fed upon them, we also ate a great number of them; but the edible portion
of each seed was very small.
It is a remarkable fact that trees, which we
had found in full blossom or in fruit in October and November, were again
observed to be in blossom and fruit in February.
We had to encamp at night without water; and although the clouds gathered
in the afternoon of a very hot day, yet no thunder-storm came to our
relief. The night breeze, which was in all probability the sea-breeze,
set in about ten minutes to six.
Feb. 13. - The morning was very cloudy. I continued my course to the
northward, and, coming to a watercourse, followed it down in the hopes of
finding water: it led us to the broad deep channel of a river, but now
entirely dry. The bed was very sandy, with reeds and an abundance of
small Casuarinas. Large flooded-gums and Casuarinas grew at intervals
along its banks, and fine openly timbered flats extended on both sides
towards belts of scrub. The river came from the north and north-west,
skirting some fine ranges, which were about three miles from its left
bank.
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