strong proof of
their natural disposition towards this first step in civilization.

DEXTERITY OF NATIVES IN FISHING.

As they threw off all reserve when accompanying us as ambassadors, we had
frequent opportunities of observing their habits. The facility, for
instance, with which they procured fish was really surprising. They would
slip, feet foremost, into the water as they walked along the bank of the
river, as if they had accidentally done so, but, in reality, to avoid the
splash they would necessarily have made if they had plunged in head
foremost. As surely as they then disappeared under the surface of the
water, so surely would they re-appear with a fish writhing upon the point
of their short spears. The very otter scarcely exceeds them in power over
the finny race, and so true is the aim of these savages, even under water,
that all the fish we procured from them were pierced either close behind
the lateral fin, or in the very centre of the head, It is certain, from
their indifference to them, that the natives seldom eat fish when they can
get anything else. Indeed, they seemed more anxious to take the small
turtle, which, sunning themselves on the trunks or logs of trees over the
water, were, nevertheless, extremely on their guard. A gentle splash alone
indicated to us that any thing had dropped into the water, but the quick
eyes and ears of our guides immediately detected what had occasioned it,
and they seldom failed to take the poor little animal that had so vainly
trusted to its own watchfulness for security. It appeared that the natives
did not, from choice, frequent the Murray; it was evident, therefore, that
they had other and better means of subsistence away from it, and it struck
me, at the time, that the river we had just passed watered a better
country than any through which the Murray had been found to flow.

BREAK UP THE SKIFF.

We encamped rather earlier than usual upon the left bank of the river,
near a broad creek; for as the skiff had been a great drag upon us, I
determined on breaking it up, since there was no probability that we
should ever require the still, which alone remained in her. We,
consequently, burnt the former, to secure her nails and iron work, and I
set Clayton about cutting the copper of the latter into the shape of
crescents, in order to present them to the natives. Some large huts were
observed on the side of the creek, a little above the camp, the whole of
which faced the