Page:Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay.djvu/66

 at full length before it. My black companions had procured some honey in the course of the day, and had killed an opossum and a large dew-lizard, which is very well tasted, somewhat resembling the flesh of chickens in flavour. I gave to the blacks a larger portion of flour than usual, in exchange for their honey, which I employed to sweeten my tea, as the sugar was lost when the pack-horse fell into the river. We brought sufficient water to the top of the range in the baskets of the wild natives with us. These baskets were made of the leaf of a large aquatic plant, and were perfectly water tight. As to our horses we allowed them to drink plentifully at the foot of the range. The blacks being in good spirits, on account of our return towards the MacLeay, indulged for two or three hours in loud singing as they lay extended on the grass. It is astonishing what a fondness the Australian natives display for the tribes to which they belong, and the localities in which they are accustomed to roam; they cannot bear even a short separation from their fellows, and their usual haunts, without feeling a strong desire to return to them.

The glen of the Bellengen, and the surrounding mountains, appeared singularly romantic from the high range on which we bivouacked, beneath the dear moonlight sky. The deep narrow valley yawned in misty obscurity, like a fathomless abyss at our feet, whilst the lofty mountains, which bounded it to the northward, stood forth in bold,