We Found Shells Of Cymbium And
Cytherea, An Enormous Waddie, Which Could Have Been Wielded Only By A
Powerful Arm, Nets And Various Instruments For Fishing, In Their Deserted
Camp.
August 7.
- I thought it advisable to stop here, and give our meat a fair
drying. The natives were not seen again. Charley and John took a ride to
procure some game, and came to a salt-water creek, which joined the river
about three miles from our camp; the river flowed in a very winding
course from the eastward. They found some good fresh water-holes, at the
head of the salt-water.
August 8. - We travelled about seven miles E.S.E. over plains and Ironbark
ridges. The approaches of the creek, broken by watercourses and gullies,
were covered with thickets of raspberry-jam trees. The rock cropped out
frequently in the creek, which was said to be very rocky lower down. The
salt-water Hibiscus, a species of Paritium, Adr. Juss. (Hibiscus
tiliaceus? Linn. D.C. Prodr. I. p. 454) grew round the water-holes. We
found the same little tree at the salt-water rivers on the west coast of
the gulf, and at Port Essington. I had formerly seen it at the sea coast
of Moreton Bay; its bark is tough and fibrous, and the heart-wood is
brown with a velvety lustre.
August 9. - When Charley returned with the horses, he told us, that, when
he was sitting down to drink at a water-hole about three miles up the
creek, ten emus came to the other side of the water; keeping himself
quiet, he took a careful aim, and shot one dead; then mounting his horse
immediately, he pursued the others, and approaching them very near,
succeeded in shooting another. He broke the wings of both and concealed
them under water. It is a singular custom of the natives, that of
breaking the wings upon killing an emu; as the wings could only slightly
assist the animal in making its escape, should it revive. But in
conversation with Brown as to the possibility of one of the emus having
escaped, he said very seriously: "Blackfellow knows better than white
fellow; he never leaves the emu without breaking a wing. Blackfellows
killed an emu once, and went off intending to call their friends to help
them to eat, and when they came back, they looked about, looked about,
but there was no emu; the emu was gone - therefore the Blackfellows always
broke the wings of the emus they killed afterwards." This was, however,
very probably one of Brown's yarns, made up for the occasion.
I sent Mr. Calvert and Charley to fetch the game, whilst we loaded the
bullocks, and by the time they returned, we were ready to start. The emus
were fine large birds, but not fat; this season seemed to be unfavourable
for them. When we came out into the plain, we saw the smoke of the
natives to the southward, and I steered for it, supposing that they were
either near the river, or at all events not far from fresh water.
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