ing, or with a hook
and line, except such as they find in the hollows of the rocks, and
shoals, which are dry at half-ebb.

Their manner of hunting we had no opportunity to see; but we
conjectured, by the notches which they had every where cut in large
trees in order to climb them, that they took their station near the tops
of them, and there watched for such animals as might happen to pass near
enough to be reached by their lances: It is possible also, that in this
situation they might take birds when they came to roost.

I have observed that when they went from our tents upon the banks of
Endeavour River, we could trace them by the fires which they kindled in
their way; and we imagined that these fires were intended some way for
the taking the kangaroo, which we observed to be so much afraid of fire,
that our dogs could scarcely force it over places which had been newly
burnt, though the fire was extinguished.

They produce fire with great facility, and spread it in a wonderful
manner. To produce it they take two pieces of dry soft wood, one is a
stick about eight or nine inches long, the other piece is flat: The
stick they shape into an obtuse point at one end, and pressing it upon
the other, turn it nimbly by holding it between both their hands as we
do a chocolate mill, often shifting their hands up, and then moving them
down upon it, to increase the pressure as much as possible. By this
method they get fire in less than two minutes, and from the smallest
spark they increase it with great speed and dexterity. We have often
seen one of them run along the shore, to all appearance with nothing in
his hand, who stooping down for a moment, at the distance of every fifty
or a hundred yards, left fire behind him, as we could see first by the
smoke and then by the flame among the drift-wood, and other litter which
was scattered along the place. We had the curiosity to examine one of
these planters of fire, when he set off, and we saw him wrap up a small
spark in dry grass, which, when he had run a little way, having been
fanned by the air that his motion produced, began to blaze; he then laid
it down in a place convenient for, his purpose, inclosing a spark of it
in another quantity of grass, and so continued his course.

There are perhaps few things in the history of mankind more
extraordinary than the discovery and application of fire: It will
scarcely be disputed that the manner of producing it, whether by
collision