The natives had just arrived in the paddock, and established their temporary village or encampment; their habitations were merely sheets of bark, stripped from the trees in the vicinity, and supported by props, the sheet of bark being placed to windward, and shifted as might be required, the fire for cooking purposes, &c., being made in front. The aborigines are very expert in stripping large and perfect sheets of bark from the trees, and as this material is used by the colonists for the covering of huts and other purposes, the natives are often employed by them to procure it. The bark of two species of the _Eucalyptus_ called “stringy bark” and “box-tree” by the colonists, (more particularly the former,) is preferred, as from them it is more readily stripped in pieces of the large size usually required. If the aborigines wanted to pass a river, I observed them strip off sheets of bark with great expedition, upon which they crossed, paddling themselves with a piece of wood, sometimes placing piles of mud at each end of the rude _bark_ to prevent the ingress of the water, if there was any thing in it they wished to keep dry: having all the services they require out of the rudely constructed vessels, they desert and leave them either to be carried down the stream or rot on the banks, being aware that another canoe of the same rude construction is always ready when it may be required. When the bark of the “stringy bark” (or, according to its native name in this part of the colony, _Dether_) is waved, it is rejected by the stock-keepers, fencers, &c., as unserviceable, the timber being then found twisted, and not capable of being split into straight pieces for paling, &c.; but when the fibres of the bark run in a parallel direction, the wood of the tree is also found to correspond, and the grain being straight is readily split into rails, posts, or applied to any other purpose that may be required by the settler. The wood of the “box-tree” (_Eucalyptus marginata_?) is considered very durable for flooring boards, shingles, &c., and the young trees for shafts of gigs; for the latter purpose it is considered by many persons not to be surpassed by any other kind of wood in the colony.