A Small Packet
Contained Red Ochre To Colour Their Bodies, And Larger Packets Contained
Soaked Cycas Seeds, Which Seemed To Be Undergoing Fermentation.
They were
of a mealy substance, and harmless; but had a musty taste and smell,
resembling that of the common German cheese.
There was also a very large
stone tomahawk made of greenstone; and some fans of emu feathers.
In returning, we chased and shot an emu.
Sept. 19. - We moved our camp to the water-holes at the left bank of the
Robinson, about six miles and a half west by north, from the head of the
salt-water in Cycas Creek. The longitude of the Robinson is, according to
my reckoning, 136 degrees 43 minutes. On our way we again met the
natives, men, women, and children, who ran away screaming loudly. I
visited their camp again, and found that they had been there to fetch the
emu feet; but had left all the other things behind. I went with Brown to
examine the country before us. The first three or four miles lay through
an open well-grassed forest and over some small plains, on which we gave
an unsuccessful chase to three emus. The Cycas disappeared as we receded
from the river. We passed a small scrubby creek, and a long tract of
stringy-bark forest, mixed with bloodwood and Pandanus, and patches of
Cypress pine. Here we again observed the gum-tree with orange blossoms
and large ribbed seed-vessels, which we found at the upper Lynd, and had
called Melaleuca gum. Sterculia was frequent, and we collected a great
quantity of its ripe seeds. We passed several dry swamps, surrounded with
tea-tree thickets, and heaps of fresh water mussel shells. A rich
iron-stone rock cropped out frequently; its surface had the appearance of
having been netted.
In a tract of broad-leaved tea-tree forest, we came to a watercourse,
which led us to a fine creek surrounded with Pandanus and drooping
tea-trees, and containing a chain of deep water-holes in its bed. Its
course was from west to east.
Sept. 20. - We removed our camp to the creek I had found last night, about
nine miles north-west from the Robinson. On our way, we saw two flocks of
emus, and Spring caught one of the birds. According to Charley, who is a
native of Bathurst, the emus of this part of the country are much smaller
than those of his country, which frequently yield from two to three
gallons of oil; but very few of the gulf emus contained fat enough to fry
their own liver; and their skin was as dry as that of the native dog. A
similar difference has been observed in the bustard, which, at the gulf,
rarely weighed more than three pounds and a half; whereas individuals of
twenty and twenty-eight pounds weight have been shot to the southward.
I succeeded here in cooking the seeds of Sterculia, which had recently
been gathered; first by separating them from their prickly husks, and
roasting them slightly, and then pounding and boiling them for a short
time.
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