nd looks so
inviting that a stranger is irresistibly tempted to pluck it; but
seldom more than once, for though the raspberry-like berries are
harmless in themselves, some contact with the leaves is almost
unavoidable. The blacks are said to eat the fruit; but for this I
cannot vouch, though I have tasted one or two at odd times, and found
them very pleasant. The worst of this nettle is the tendency it
exhibits to shoot up wherever a clearing has been effected. In passing
through the dray tracks cut through the scrub, great caution was
necessary to avoid the young plants that cropped up even in a few
weeks. I have never known a case of its being fatal to human beings;
but I have seen people subjected by it to great suffering, notably a
scientific gentleman, who plucked off a branch and carried it some
distance as a curiosity, wondering the while what was causing the pain
and numbness in his arm. Horses I have been die in agony from the
sting, the wounded parts becoming paralysed; but strange to say, it
does not seem to injure cattle, who dash through scrubs full of it
without receiving any damage. This curious anomaly is well known to
all bushmen.

For a couple of hours we followed the tortuous windings of the track,
without we white men having the faintest conception where we were
going, though the troopers and Lizzie declared that we were pushing
straight through. At length a ray of sunlight became visible, and in a
few minutes we emerged from the sombre depths of the jungle, and found
ourselves on the banks of a splendid river, the Mackay. Traces of
blacks were seen in every direction, the white sand being covered with
their foot-prints. Abandoned gungales were plentiful on the opposite
bank, which was clear of scrub, and whilst we were eating the damper
and beef with which each of the party was provided, Lizzie espied a
thin column of smoke at no great distance.

We approached it as cautiously as possible, taking advantage of every
shrub that offered a cover, and finally, lying down and worming our way
through the grass on all fours, a mode of progression that is in itself
particularly fatiguing and objectionable, but not without excitement,
for we never knew the moment when we might chance to put our hands on a
dormant snake, or find ourselves sprawling over a nest of bulldog ants.
We were successful in completely surprising the camp, which consisted
entirely of gins and piccaninnies, all the males, as u