Page:Diary of ten years.djvu/49

 33 preferring to fell the timber necessary for building, at the distance of a quarter of a mile.

Just behind my house (on the high level land), is a plain of perhaps two hundred acres, upon which large trees are not numerous, or more than sufficient for ornament. There is one spot looking like a cleared field, of eight or nine acres, not encumbered with a single tree or shrub. In other places a tree resembling a larch of four or five years' growth, is thinly scattered. This large plain is skirted by a thick border of red gum trees, intermixed with banksias, black wattles, and other shrubs. The ground of this border is a rich red sandy loam, very easily turned up; and here my men are breaking ground with the hoe, there being abundance of clear ground between the large trees, when the light brush wood is removed. The trees have not a very ample foliage, so that you may walk in the forest, and yet not enjoy much shade. The red gum tree resembles an old pear or cherry tree, but is of much greater dimensions. There is one beside my house, which in winter will protect it from the fierce, north-west blast.

The Zanthorea Hastile, or grass tree, puts me in mind of a tall black native, with a spear in his hand, ornamented with a tuft of rushes. These vary in size from those peeping over the surface to those in the swampy grounds, eight or ten feet high, with a spear equally long growing out of the stem, and bearing at the top a beautiful flower; on the spear is found an excellent, clear, transparent gum, and from the lower part of the tree oozes a black gum, which makes a powerful cement used by the natives for fastening stone heads on their hammers. The country presents an endless variety or succession of flowering trees and shrubs; but I have not seen any having much perfume.

The kangaroo has supplied food to many who were prudent or fortunate enough to provide themselves with proper dogs, such as strong greyhounds, which are here expensive and difficult to be procured, a good one costing more than £15.