t
from King George's Sound in Western Australia in order to discover what
was the nature of the article of food so loudly praised by them, and
which they stated was to be found in certain districts in great
profusion; the belief at that time being, from the accounts given of it,
that it could be only a new and valuable species of grain. The exploring
party did not attain their object, and to this day many of the settlers
believe the kwon-nat to be a kind of corn.

FOOD PLENTIFUL. VARIETIES OF IT IN DIFFERENT LATITUDES.

Generally speaking the natives live well; in some districts there may at
particular seasons of the year be a deficiency of food, but if such is
the case these tracts are at those times deserted. It is however utterly
impossible for a traveller or even for a strange native to judge whether
a district affords an abundance of food or the contrary; for in
traversing extensive parts of Australia I have found the sorts of food
vary from latitude to latitude, so that the vegetable productions used by
the Aborigines in one are totally different to those in another; if
therefore a stranger has no one to point out to him the vegetable
productions, the soil beneath his feet may teem with food whilst he
starves. The same rule holds good with regard to animal productions; for
example in the southern parts of the continent the Xanthorrhoea affords
an inexhaustible supply of fragrant grubs, which an epicure would delight
in when once he has so far conquered his prejudices as to taste them;
whilst in proceeding to the northward these trees decline in health and
growth, until about the parallel of Gantheaume Bay they totally
disappear, and even a native finds himself cut off from his ordinary
supplies of insects; the same circumstances taking place with regard to
the roots and other kinds of food at the same time, the traveller
necessarily finds himself reduced to cruel extremities. A native from the
plains, taken into an elevated mountainous district near his own country
for the first time, is equally at fault.

VARIED WITH THE SEASONS.

But in his own district a native is very differently situated; he knows
exactly what it produces, the proper time at which the several articles
are in season, and the readiest means of procuring them. According to
these circumstances he regulates his visits to the different portions of
his hunting ground; and I can only state that I have always found the
greatest abundance in their