Page:Diary of ten years.djvu/351

 333 length when finished, and will enclose a large piece of ground, part of the line being on the boundary between me and Mr Lamb on the South, and me and Mr. Tanner's ground (where Captain Bryan formerly lived) on the North, and a connecting line at the back, about half a mile from the river.



December 4th.—I know but little of the habits of vines at home, but one thing appears to me singular. In order to prevent them running too much to wood, I have nipped the ends off the growing branches, and the consequence is that so many of those tendrils which would otherwise be employed in clinging to the trellis or other support, have changed their nature and put out fruit. I had one pomegranate blossom, but the fowls have picked it off. A spot in a field of barley seemed greatly affected, the heads appeared to have been broken short off, and were lying on the ground. It appears to be the work of caterpillars, which are found on the ground there in great numbers. There is a grass which is in seed now; the seed is something like that of a wild or animated oat. It buries itself into the skin wherever it touches. You would pity the poor sheep could you see how they suffer from it. Frequently when they are skinned, the grass seed is found to have penetrated or worked its way into the flesh of the sheep.

December 9th.—A rumour has reached us that a vessel has arrived. It is high time one did, for the colony was much in want of those things with which it cannot supply itself. I literally wear a hat which is half cut through by some accident or other, and completely bare of beaver, but there is not another to be got. The same with shoes, and the same with clothes. There is not a pound of soap in the colony, nor a candle! Had it not been that our sheep have multiplied so fast we had been in a bad way,—not a pound of salt meat to be had. Flour was 9d., but harvest has commenced.

December 14th.—One of the officers of the Beagle (Mr.