Discoveries in Australia, Volume 1.: With an Account of the Coasts and Rivers Explored and Surveyed During; The Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, in the Years 1837-38-39-40-41-42-43.; By Command of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. Also a Narrative; Of Captain Owen Stanley's Visits to the Islands in the Arafura Sea.Stokes, John Lort
History
Discoveries in Australia, Volume 1.: With an Account of the Coasts and Rivers Explored and Surveyed During; The Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, in the Years 1837-38-39-40-41-42-43.; By Command of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. Also a Narrative; Of Captain Owen Stanley's Visits to the Islands in the Arafura Sea.
Stokes, John Lort
Australia -- Description and travel; Australia -- Discovery and exploration; Natural history -- Australia
We found the branches of these trees and the ground underneath strewed
over with a white substance resembling small flakes of snow, called by
the colonists manna. I am aware that an erroneous idea exists that this
matter is deposited by the locusts; but in fact it is an exudation from
the Eucalyptus; and although I saw it beneath another kind of tree, it
must have been carried there by the wind. A different sort, of a pale
yellow colour, is found on a smaller species of Eucalyptus growing on
highlands, and is much sought after for food by the natives, who
sometimes scrape from the tree as much as a pound in a quarter of an
hour. It has the taste of a delicious sweetmeat, with an almond flavour,
and is so luscious that much cannot be eaten of it. This is well worthy
of attention from our confectioners at home, and it may hereafter form an
article of commerce, although from what has fallen under my own
observation, and from what I have learnt from Mr. Eyre and others, I
should say it is not of frequent occurrence. The first kind, being found
strewed underneath the tree probably exudes from the leaf, whilst the
second oozes from the stem. The wood of the latter is much used for fuel
by the natives, especially in night-fishing, and burns brightly, without
smoke, diffusing also a delicious aromatic smell.
HOBSON'S BAY.
On Christmas day, which we spent in Hobson's Bay, we experienced one of
those hot winds which occasionally occur coming off the land. During its
prevalence, everything assumes a strange appearance--objects are seen
with difficulty, and acquire a tremulous motion like that which is
imparted to everything seen through the air escaping from an over-heated
stove. The thermometer on a wall under the glare of the sun, stood at 135
degrees.
We surveyed Hobson's Bay during our stay, and connected it by
triangulation with Melbourne. Our observations were made at the inner end
of a small jetty. The mouth of the Yarra-yarra is closed up by a bar,
which from its soft muddy nature may be easily removed. The deepest water
we found on it at high tide was nine feet.
CORIO HARBOUR.
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