A Cormorant With
White Breast And Belly, And The Rose Cockatoo Were Shot; The Former
Tasted As Well As A Duck.
Brown collected a good quantity of the gum of
Terminalia, and the seeds of the river bean, which made an excellent
coffee.
The native bee was very abundant.
The natives seemed to have burned the grass systematically along every
watercourse, and round every water-hole, in order to have them surrounded
with young grass as soon as the rain sets in. These burnings were not
connected with camping places, where the fire is liable to spread from
the fire-places, and would clear the neighbouring ground. Long strips of
lately burnt grass were frequently observed extending for many miles
along the creeks. The banks of small isolated water-holes in the forest,
were equally attended to, although water had not been in either for a
considerable time. It is no doubt connected with a systematic management
of their runs, to attract game to particular spots, in the same way that
stockholders burn parts of theirs in proper seasons; at least those who
are not influenced by the erroneous notion, that burning the grass
injures the richness and density of the natural turf. The natives,
however, frequently burn the high and stiff grass, particularly along
shady creeks, with the intention of driving the concealed game out of it;
and we have frequently seen them watching anxiously, even for lizards,
when other game was wanting.
August 3. - We travelled, for the first two miles, N. 60 degrees W. over
scrubby ironstone ridges, and then entered upon a fine plain, from which
smoke was seen to the west and north-west.
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