We Reached The Boat On The Sixth Day,
Found The Pilot And His Party Well, And Having Dismissed The Blacks, With
The Present Of A Tomahawk And A Blanket, We Started At Once For The Place
Lower Down The River, Which Had Been Agreed Upon With Jack Clark As A
Rendezvous.
When we arrived at this spot on the following day, the
horsemen had not turned up, so we amused ourselves as best we could,
fishing, shooting, and eating damper thickly plastered over with honey, for
Larry had found a "sugar bag."
The way the trooper performed this feat was not a little ingenious. Having
noticed several bees about, he caught one, and with a little gum, attached
to it a piece of down from a large owl that somebody had shot. Releasing
the insect, it flew directly towards its nest, the unaccustomed burden with
which it was laden serving not only to make it easily visible, but also
impeding its flight sufficiently to admit of the boy following it. The
next was at the top of a large blue gum tree, about three feet in diameter,
and sending up a smooth column for fifty feet without a branch or twig.
Most people would have given up all thoughts of a honey feed for the day;
not so Mr. Larry, whose movements we followed with considerable curiosity.
Divesting himself of his clothing, he repaired to an adjoining scrub, and
with his tomahawk cut out a piece of lawyer cane twenty feet in length.
Having stripped this of its husk, he wove it into a hoop round the tree of
just sufficient size to admit his body.
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