The Bushman — Life in a New CountryLandor, Edward Wilson
History
The Bushman — Life in a New Country
Landor, Edward Wilson
Western Australia -- Description and travel
That there are such fertile spots in the Australian deserts
is certain, for I have seen many of them myself, and they are
mentioned also by the South Australian travellers. The similarity in
most respects of vegetation in Western Australia and in South
Australia, and the identity of many plants, proves also a country of
good quality lying between the two colonies; by which such plants
were conveyed from one country to the other. Thus, the so called
white-gum is the same tree in both colonies; the mungat, or
raspberry-jam tree, is common to both; and also to the plains of New
England, in New South Wales, where (I understand) it acquires a
larger size than in Western Australia. The manch is another tree
also common to the two colonies; so is the black-wattle. The grasses
are many of them alike. But this similarity is not confined only to
the vegetable kingdom. The birds and animals are many of them also
alike. The white and the black cockatoo are common to the three
colonies, as are many kinds of the smaller parrots, the kangaroo, and
the kangaroo-rat, the numbat, the opossum, the native cat, and many
others. And this is not only true of animals of great locomotion, or
birds of long flight, as the pigeon or cockatoo, but equally so of
the opossum, the quail, and the wild-turkey. The quail and the
turkey are birds chiefly found in grassy lands, and neither fly to
any great distance: at least the quail never does; the turkey will
when much disturbed, but not otherwise. Also the water animals, as
the tortoise, are to be found in both colonies; but not the platypus,
which is confined to the country east of the great river Murrumbidgee
and its tributary the Darling.
The natives are also alike in feature and habits, evidently the same
race, with language similar in character, in both countries, with
similar weapons and methods of procuring food; having also similar
customs and laws.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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