Journals Of Expeditions Of Discovery Into Central Australia And Overland From Adelaide To King George's Sound In The Years 1840-1: Sent By The Colonists Of South Australia By Eyre, Edward John
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From These Wylie Enjoyed A Plentiful, And To
Him, Luxurious Supper.
I could not bring myself to try them, preferring
the root of the broad flag-reed, which, for the
First time, we met with
at this stream, and which is an excellent and nutritious article of food.
This root being dug up, and roasted in hot ashes, yields a great quantity
of a mealy farinaceous powder interspersed among the fibres; it is of an
agreeable flavour, wholesome, and satisfying to the appetite. In all
parts of Australia, even where other food abounds, the root of this reed
is a favourite and staple article of diet among the aborigines. The
proper season of the year for procuring it in full perfection, is after
the floods have receded, and the leaves have died away and been burnt
off. It is that species of reed of which the leaves are used by coopers
for closing up crevices between the staves of their casks.
June 1. - Upon getting up this morning I found myself very stiff and sore
from the bruises I had received yesterday, yet I felt thankful that I had
escaped so well; had any of my limbs been broken, I should have been in a
dreadful position, and in all probability must have perished. After Wylie
had dug up some of the flag-roots for breakfast, and a few to take with
us, we proceeded on our journey. I was anxious to have made a long stage,
and if possible, to have reached Thistle Cove by night; but the country
we had to pass over was heavy and sandy, and after travelling fifteen
miles, the horses became so jaded, that I was obliged to turn in among
some sand-drifts near the coast, and halt for the night.
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