This Extraordinary And Inexplicable Custom Must Have A Great Tendency To Prevent The Rapid Increase Of The Population; And Its Adoption May Perhaps Be A Wise Ordination Of Providence, For That Purpose, In A Country Of So Desert And Arid A Character As That Which These People Occupy.

November 10.

- Getting the party away about five o'clock this morning, I persuaded one of the natives, named "Wilguldy," an intelligent cheerful old man, to accompany us as a guide, and as an inducement, had him mounted on a horse, to the great admiration and envy of his fellows, all of whom followed us on foot, keeping up in a line with the dray through the scrub, and procuring their food as they went along, which consisted of snakes, lizards, guanas, bandicoots, rats, wallabies, etc. etc. and it was surprising to see the apparent ease with which, in merely walking across the country, they each procured an abundant supply for the day.

In one place in the scrub we came to a large circular mound of sand, about two feet high, and several yards in circumference; this they immediately began to explore, carefully throwing away the sand with their hands from the centre, until they had worked down to a deep narrow hole, round the sides of which, and embedded in the sand, were four fine large eggs of a delicate pink colour, and fully the size of a goose egg. I had often seen these hills before, but did not know that they were nests, and that they contained so valuable a prize to a traveller in the desert.

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