The Arborescent Zamia Was As
Frequent Here As On The Slopes And Flat Tops Of The Basaltic Mountains;
It Grows
From six to ten feet high, and even higher, and is about a foot
in diameter; and often, its dark
Scaly trunk, borne to the ground by the
winds, raises its fine head like a reclining man.
There was a thunder-storm to the south-east and east on the 10th
December. These thunder-storms are generally very local, belonging to
distant valleys and ranges. Much rain had fallen at the foot of the
range, but we had very little of it. Several of my companions suffered by
eating too much of the cabbage-palm. The Blackfellows will doubtless
wonder why so many noble trees had been felled here. One of our
kangaroo-dogs followed a kangaroo, and did not return; a severe loss, as
we have only one left out of five, and this one is young and diseased.
Our little terrier keeps very well.
Dec. 12 - After a clear night, the morning was misty, with a wall of
clouds to the westward; at nine o'clock it cleared up, and loose cumuli
passed over from the east; at eleven o'clock all clouds had disappeared,
and a cool breeze set in from the northward. Charley did not succeed in
bringing in the horses and cattle sufficiently early for starting on the
long and difficult passage over the range. Our meat was all consumed; but
we wished to reserve our bullocks for Christmas, which was, in every one
of us, so intimately associated with recollections of happy days and
merriment, that I was determined to make the coming season as merry as
our circumstances permitted.
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