ction, which, unfortunately, I
had been compelled to leave behind. It required, however, a little
longer stewing than a fresh hide, and was rather tasteless." We avow
total unacquaintance with wallabies, their size and edible qualities,
but, whatever their dimensions, the fact of a five-months'-old hide
having been stewed with them to ameliorate the broth, says very little
for their succulence. The sweetness, as well as the greenness of the
"case to the botanical collection," may fairly be doubted. We should
have an ill opinion of the pottage that needed an old portmanteau to
improve its consistency, and strongly mistrust the nutritious
qualities of the meagre wallabi-broth, which followed so closely on
the heels of the Feast of Ducks.

It was very fortunate for Dr Leichhardt and his companions--who
certainly had abundance of difficulties to encounter--that the country
they traversed was nearly free from ferocious beasts and noxious
reptiles. They had plenty to do without combating such formidable
enemies. Throughout the whole journal there is no mention of any
dangerous animal, except crocodiles and alligators,--easily avoided,
and not much to be dreaded. On the 19th June, "Charley and Brown, who
had gone to the river, returned at a late hour, when they told us they
had seen the tracks of a large animal on the sands of the river, which
they judged to be about the size of a big dog, trailing a long tail
like a snake. Charley said, that when Brown fired his gun, a deep
noise like the bellowing of a bull was heard, which frightened both so
much that they immediately decamped. This was the first time we became
aware of the existence of the crocodile in the waters of the gulf."
Afterwards they not unfrequently fell in with them. Near the banks of
a magnificent salt-water river--named by Dr Leichhardt the "Robinson,"
in honour of one of the promoters of the expedition--they came upon a
native well. "When Charley first discovered it, he saw a crocodile
leaning its long head over the clay-wall, enjoying a drink of fresh
water." Of venomous snakes and insects, we also find little or no
account in the Doctor's diary. Once only there was a suspicion of the
kind. Upon leaving a camp on the river Lynd, the lad Murphy's pony was
missing, and Charley went back to look for it. "He brought us the
melancholy news that he had found the poor beast on the sands of the
Lynd, with its body blown up, and bleeding from the nostrils. It had
ei