NATIVE FIRES.

The country was more open in character than I had before noticed it, and the numerous traces of native fires which we found in the course of the excursion, seemed readily to account for this:  indeed during dry seasons it not unfrequently happens, that an immense tract of land is desolated with fire, communicated, either by the design or carelessness of the natives, to the dry herbage on the surface.  The moment the flame has been kindled it only waits for the first breath of air to spread it far and wide:  then on the wings of the wind, the fiery tempest streams over the hillsides and through the vast plains and prairies:  bushwood and herbage—­the dry grass—­the tall reed—­the twining parasite—­or the giant of the forest, charred and blackened, but still proudly erect—­alike attest and bewail the conquering fire’s onward march; and the bleak desert, silent, waste, and lifeless, which it leaves behind seems forever doomed to desolation:  vain fear! the rain descends once more upon the dry and thirsty soil, and from that very hour which seemed the date of cureless ruin, Nature puts forth her wondrous power with increased effort, and again her green and flower-embroidered mantle decks the earth with a new beauty!

SOIL AND PRODUCTIONS.

The soil of the extensive plain over which we journeyed this day, was light and sandy in character, but the large amount of vegetable matter which it contains, and the effect of the late rains, which had penetrated some 24 or 30 inches into it, made us perhaps somewhat overvalue its real merits.  This plain rose gradually before us until it reached an elevation of 180 feet above the level of the sea, and was covered with a long, thin grass, through which the startled kangaroo made off every now and then at a killing pace.

The face of the country was well but not too closely covered with specimens of the red and white gum, and paperbark tree, and several others.  The timber was but small, the diameter of the largest, a red gum, 18 inches.

Ever and anon the sparkling brilliant lizards darted down from their resting places among the boughs, so rapid in their fearful escape, that they caught the eye more like a flash of momentary light, than living, moving forms.  We flushed in the course of the day a white bird, or at least nearly so, with a black ring round the neck, and a bill crooked like the ibis, which bird indeed, except in colour, it more resembles than any I have ever seen.*

(Footnote.  Since ascertained to be an Ibis—­the Threskiornis strictipennis.)

Among the trees seen in the course of this ramble, I had almost forgotten to mention one which struck me more than any other from its resemblance to a kind of cotton tree, used by the natives of the South Sea islands in building their canoes.

February 7.

The day following we secured several boat-loads of rainwater, deposited in the holes of the rocks, near our temporary observatory, and were the better pleased with our success, as our well-digging had proved unsuccessful.