ough not of a large species, it was a full grown animal, and furnished
us with a grateful supply of wholesome food. Once more Wylie enjoyed as
much as he could eat, and after breakfast, I took the horse back to the
camp, carrying with me about thirty-two pounds weight of the best and
most fleshy parts of the kangaroo. Wylie remained behind with the rifle,
to return leisurely and try to shoot another; but early in the afternoon
he returned, not having seen one. The truth, I suspect was, that he had
eaten too much to breakfast, and laid down to sleep when I was gone,
coming back to the camp as soon as he felt hungry again. The rest of the
day was taken up in attending to the horses and bringing a supply of
water up for ourselves. The weather was mild and pleasant, and a few
slight showers fell at night, but we were now so well protected among the
tea-trees, and had so much firewood, that we were not inconvenienced by
the rain.

As I still intended to remain in camp to recruit the horses, I wished
Wylie to go out again on the 22nd, to try for another kangaroo; but the
other not being yet all used, he was very unwilling to do so, and it was
only upon my threatening to move on if he did not, that I could get him
out. As soon as he was gone, I went down to Point Malcolm to try to fish,
as the weather was now so much more moderate. Unfortunately, my tackling
was not strong, and after catching three rock-fish, weighing together
three pounds and a half; a large fish got hooked, and took great part of
my line, hook and all, away.

It was very vexing to lose a line when I had not many, but still more so
to miss a fine fish that would have weighed fifteen or sixteen pounds.
Being obliged to come back, I spent the remainder of the afternoon in
preparing lines for the morrow.

Towards evening Wylie returned gloomy and sulky, and without having fired
a shot; neither had he brought the horses up with him to water as I had
requested him to do, and now it was too late to go for them, and they
would have to be without water for the night. I was vexed at this, and
gave him a good scolding for his negligence, after which I endeavoured to
ascertain what had so thoroughly put him out of humour, for ordinarily he
was one of the best tempered natives I had met with: a single sentence
revealed the whole--"The----dogs had eaten the skin."

This observation came from the very bottom of his soul, and at once gave
me an idea of the magnitude of t