Page:Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies.djvu/121

1832.] necessity, and does not appear to arise out of a nature more cruel than is common to mankind generally.

In the course of a walk, along the margin of the woody land, adjoining the beach, we saw a Black Swan and some Ducks, upon a lagoon: several Spur-winged Plovers were feeding among the rocks on the coast, and we observed a number of interesting shells on the shore.

12th. The present site of the Settlement, being unfit for agriculture, and in other respects unfavourable for advancement in civilization, a project has been formed for removing it about 15 miles northward, to a place named by the sealers Pea Jacket Point. For this place, we set out in the afternoon, the weather having become fine after a wet morning. The company consisted of W. J. Darling, G. W. Walker, and myself, attended by four native men and two of their wives, with eight dogs. We had not proceeded far before a duck flew off her nest, and her numerous eggs quickly became the spoil of some of our attendants, who rushed to the spot, and each, seized as many as he could, but without quarrelling as to the division of them. Our way was sometimes along the beach, at others on the adjacent land, and sometimes through the scrub, in crossing projecting points. The dogs killed a Kangaroo Rat and some mice, rather larger than English Field-mice. The Kangaroo Rat was cooked during a halt, made till the tide ebbed sufficiently to allow us to cross a creek. The animal was thrown into the ashes till the hair was well singed off, and it became a little distended by the heat; it was then scraped, and cleared of the entrails, after which it was returned to the fire till roasted enough. This is the common mode of cooking practiced by the Aborigines, who find that, by thus roasting the meat in the skin, the gravy is more abundant. In eating, they reject the skin, and it forms the portion of their numerous dogs. These are generally very lean, but they are highly valued by their owners, who obtained them from Europeans, there being originally no wild dogs in V. D. Land. The flesh of the Kangaroo Rat is much like that of a rabbit. Near this creek some fine bushes of Myoporum serratum were beautifully in blossom. This shrub is like a