As they have no nets, they catch fish only by striking, or with a hook and line, except such as they find in the hollows of the rocks, and shoals, which are dry at half-ebb.

Their manner of hunting we had no opportunity to see; but we conjectured, by the notches which they had every where cut in large trees in order to climb them, that they took their station near the tops of them, and there watched for such animals as might happen to pass near enough to be reached by their lances:  It is possible also, that in this situation they might take birds when they came to roost.

I have observed that when they went from our tents upon the banks of Endeavour River, we could trace them by the fires which they kindled in their way; and we imagined that these fires were intended some way for the taking the kangaroo, which we observed to be so much afraid of fire, that our dogs could scarcely force it over places which had been newly burnt, though the fire was extinguished.

They produce fire with great facility, and spread it in a wonderful manner.  To produce it they take two pieces of dry soft wood, one is a stick about eight or nine inches long, the other piece is flat:  The stick they shape into an obtuse point at one end, and pressing it upon the other, turn it nimbly by holding it between both their hands as we do a chocolate mill, often shifting their hands up, and then moving them down upon it, to increase the pressure as much as possible.  By this method they get fire in less than two minutes, and from the smallest spark they increase it with great speed and dexterity.  We have often seen one of them run along the shore, to all appearance with nothing in his hand, who stooping down for a moment, at the distance of every fifty or a hundred yards, left fire behind him, as we could see first by the smoke and then by the flame among the drift-wood, and other litter which was scattered along the place.  We had the curiosity to examine one of these planters of fire, when he set off, and we saw him wrap up a small spark in dry grass, which, when he had run a little way, having been fanned by the air that his motion produced, began to blaze; he then laid it down in a place convenient for, his purpose, inclosing a spark of it in another quantity of grass, and so continued his course.

There are perhaps few things in the history of mankind more extraordinary than the discovery and application of fire:  It will scarcely be disputed that the manner of producing it, whether by collision or attrition, was discovered by chance:  But its first effects would naturally strike those to whom it was a new object, with consternation and terror:  It would appear to be an enemy to life and nature, and to torment and destroy whatever was capable of being destroyed or tormented; and therefore it seems not easy to conceive what should incline those who first saw it receive a transient existence from chance, to reproduce it by design.  It is by no means probable that those