Page:Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies.djvu/62

30 feed chiefly on their leaves: they are shot in considerable numbers on moonlight nights to diminish them, and for the sake of their fur, which is very thick and warm. When shot they sometimes hang by their prehensile tails, by which they can lay firm hold of a branch. While warm, their fur readily comes off, but it becomes fast when they are cold. The skins sell for about four pence each, and are black, brown, or grey. Birds of various kinds also abound in this country; among them may be enumerated Green Parrots, that are great pests in gardens, Nonpareil Parrots, that are very troublesome in corn fields, and pick about on the roads, Green Paroquets, that frequent farm yards, Lemon-crested Cockatoos, which are likewise a great annoyance to the farmer, several species of Crow and Magpie, also the Wattle-bird, the Miner, the Wedge-tailed Eagle, &c. The Emu is now extinct in this part of the island.

In the course of one of our walks, we passed the remains of a hut that was burnt about two years ago, by the Aborigines of the Ouse or Big River district. An old man named Clark lost his life in it, but a young woman escaped; she rushed from the fire and fell on her knees before the natives, one of whom extinguished the flames which had caught her clothes, and beckoned to her to go away. They killed a woman on the hill behind the hut. A few weeks after, they surrounded the house of G. Dixon, who received a spear through his thigh, in running from a barn to his house. Previously to this period, the natives had visited this neighbourhood peaceably and excited no alarm. They have now been removed to Flinders Island; but a detachment of soldiers, such as was placed in various situations to defend the settlers against the Aborigines, still remains at Elengowen, near the house of a fine old Scotch woman, named Jacobina Burns; who emigrated from her own country many years ago, and has induced several of her relatives to follow her. She has improved her circumstances, and is noted for hospitality, which is indeed a very general virtue among the settlers in this land.

While at Green Valley, walking alone, and meditating on