Page:An account of a voyage to establish a colony at Port Philip in Bass's Strait.djvu/189

( 164 ) the animated straw, &c. The swamps are inhabited by myriads of musquitoesmosquitoes [sic] of an extraordinary size; but the common fly, which swarms almost beyond belief, possesses all the offensive powers of the musquitoe, its sting creating an equal degree of pain and inflammation. Wasps are also common, but no bees were seen.

Fish, it may safely be asserted, is so scarce that it could never be depended on as a source of effectual relief in the event of scarcity. Several varieties of the ray were almost the only ones caught, with sometimes a few mullet, and other small fish; in general, a day's work with the seine produced scarcely a good dish of fish. The number of sharks which infest the harbour may occasion this