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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Of These Articles, Many Are Not Only Procurable In Abundance, But In Such
Vast Quantities At The Proper Seasons, As
To afford for a considerable
length of time an ample means of subsistence to many hundreds of natives
congregated in
One place; and these are generally the kinds of food of
which the natives are particularly fond. On many parts of the coast, and
in the larger inland rivers, fish are obtained of a very fine
description, and in great abundance. At Lake Victoria, which is filled
with the back waters of the Murray, I have seen six hundred natives
encamped together, all of whom were living at the time upon fish procured
from the lake, with the addition, perhaps, of the leaves of the
mesembryanthemum. When I went amongst them I never perceived any scarcity
in their camps. The fish were caught in nets.
At Moorunde, when the Murray annually inundates the flats, fresh-water
cray-fish make their way to the surface of the ground from holes where
they have been buried during the year, in such vast numbers that I have
seen four hundred natives live upon them for weeks together, whilst the
numbers spoiled or thrown away would have sustained four hundred more.
This fish is an excellent and nutritious article of food, and would be
highly prized by the epicure. It is caught by the women who wade into the
water in a long close line, stooping down and walking backwards, whilst
they grope with their hands and feet, presenting a singular, and to the
uninitiated, an incomprehensible spectacle, as they thus move slowly
backwards, but keep the line regular and well preserved, as all generally
occupy the same position at one time.
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