of the birds. According to Charley, who is a
native of Bathurst, the emus of this part of the country are much smaller
than those of his country, which frequently yield from two to three
gallons of oil; but very few of the gulf emus contained fat enough to fry
their own liver; and their skin was as dry as that of the native dog. A
similar difference has been observed in the bustard, which, at the gulf,
rarely weighed more than three pounds and a half; whereas individuals of
twenty and twenty-eight pounds weight have been shot to the southward.
I succeeded here in cooking the seeds of Sterculia, which had recently
been gathered; first by separating them from their prickly husks, and
roasting them slightly, and then pounding and boiling them for a short
time. They produced not only a good beverage with an agreeable flavour,
but ate well and appeared to be very nourishing. They contained a great
quantity of oil.
Brown caught an Agama, of a light yellowish colour, about a foot long.
The nights had been generally cloudy, with the exception of the last,
which was clear with heavy dew. The days were very hot before the setting
in of the sea breeze, which now generally took place at half past eleven.
But the refreshing breeze was little felt in the close stringy-bark
forest, which, with the dust rising under our bullocks' feet, rendered
the heat almost suffocating.
Sept. 21.--Our journey to-day was in a N. 50 degrees W. direction for
about eleven miles, through stringy-bark forest, in which the Melaleuca
and the Cypress pine were either scattered, or formed small patches of
forest. We then crossed a shallow sandy creek surrounded with thickets of
Cypress pine; passed some broad-leaved tea-tree forest, and came to a
fine open country timbered with tea-tree, and, farther on, with box and
white gum. After fifteen miles, our course was intercepted by the largest
salt-water river we had yet seen, and we turned at once to the W.S.W. in
order to head it. Deep hollows surrounded by tea-trees, but quite dry,
extended parallel to the river. We observed several islands in the river;
and it was joined by some deep creeks filled with salt water at their
lower parts, but dry higher up. The whole country was equally open and
well grassed. The leguminous Ironbark, the white-barked tree of the Abel
Tasman, the fig tree, and Sterculia in fruit, grew in the forest; and the
white water-gum in the hollows, the drooping tea-tree at the level
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