ks, and their
speaking so much to Piper about Majy. Of the evil tendency of giving
these people presents I was now convinced, and fully determined not to
give more then. This resolution the natives having discovered very
acutely, their ringleaders vanished like phantoms down the steep cliffs,
and we heard no more of the rest. It is possible that this portion of the
tribe had not then received intelligence of what had befallen the others
or they would not have advanced so boldly up. Be that as it may they
followed us no more, having probably heard in the course of the day from
the division of the tribe which we had driven across the Murray.

BARREN SANDS AND THE EUCALYPTUS DUMOSA. PLANTS WHICH GROW ON THE SAND AND
BIND IT DOWN.

The river taking a turn to the southward, we again entered the dumosa
scrub but it was more open than we had seen it elsewhere. The soil
consisted of barren sand; there was no grass, but there were tufts of a
prickly bush which tortured the horses and tore to rags the men's clothes
about their ankles. I observed that this bush and the Eucalyptus dumosa
grew only where the sand seemed too barren and loose for the production
of anything else; so loose indeed was it that, but for this dwarf tree
and prickly grass, the sand must have drifted so as to overwhelm the
vegetation of adjacent districts, as in other desert regions where sand
predominates. Nature appears to have provided curiously against that evil
here by the abundant distribution of two plants so singularly adapted to
such a soil. The root of the Eucalyptus dumosa resembles that of a large
tree; but instead of a trunk only a few branches rise above the ground,
forming an open kind of bush, often so low that a man on horseback may
look over it for miles. The heavy spreading roots however of this dwarf
tree and the prickly grass together occupy the ground and seem intended
to bind down the sands of the vast interior deserts of Australia. Their
disproportioned roots also prevent the bushes from growing very close
together and, the stems being leafless except at the top, this kind of
eucalyptus is almost proof against the running fires of the bush. The
prickly grass resembles at a distance, in colour and form, an overgrown
bush of lavender; but the pedestrian and the horse both soon find that it
is neither lavender nor grass, the blades consisting of sharp spikes
which shoot out in all directions, offering real annoyance to men and
horses.