lk, varying from six to eight feet in circumference: they
had large fan-shaped leaves, with slightly curved spines on the
footstalk. It is a dioecious palm, the female plants bearing an immense
quantity of round fruit, about the size of a greengage plum, of a purple
colour, and rather disagreeable flavour; the pulp covering the seed was
very oily, and not a leaf to be seen on any of the fruit-bearing plants;
the whole top consists of branches full of ripe and unripe seeds. Bushels
of seeds were lying beneath some of the trees, it seeming that but few
were eaten by birds or small animals. One of our party suffered severely
from eating too freely of them as they brought on diarrhoea. I measured
two or three of the leaves of the male plants, and those not of the
largest size, and found them to measure six feet in the widest part, and
four feet and half in the narrowest. These leaves were split by the wind
into segments of various widths. The grass growing to the westward of our
camp was not so high as that to the eastward, and appeared to consist of
a larger proportion of annual grasses, the perennial grass growing only
in tufts; near the river it was covered with an annual Ipomoea, of very
strong growth; the leaves and blossoms were withered, but I obtained
seeds. We shot three ducks to-day, and Wall killed a wallaby of a light
grey colour, long soft fur, and rather bushy tail; he thought it new, and
preserved the skin. I also obtained specimens of a beautiful plant, a
shrub about two feet high, with white sweet-scented blossoms, belonging
to the natural order Rubiaceae, and several other interesting plants.
Lately, however, my specimens had been very much spoiled, being torn from
the horse's back so frequently, that I grew disheartened to see all the
efforts I had made, made in vain, although I still took every method to
preserve them from injury.

October 2.

This morning we proceeded across the plain, and when we had advanced
about two miles upon it, we discovered that the natives had set the grass
on fire behind us, and the wind blowing from the eastward, and the grass
growing thick and high, it rapidly gained upon us; we made all possible
haste to some burned ground which we had seen on Saturday, and reached it
only a few minutes before the fire. We were enveloped in smoke and ashes,
but fortunately no one was burned. The natives did not come near us,
although no doubt they watched us, and saw us proceeding to the pa