ball
of the forefinger. Stooping down, he approached to within four or five
yards of the fish, which were only a few inches from the surface, and
suddenly jerking his switch forward, it entered the water almost
horizontally, and rarely failed to transfix a 'Barri mundi', which,
darting forward, was soon hampered by the weapon catching in the weeds,
and became the prey of its sharp-eyed captor, who had never lost sight
of it in its endeavour to escape. This fish is excellent eating, and
averages from eight to thirty pounds in weight.

As Dunmore and I were strolling along a small lagoon overgrown with
water-lilies, he pointed out to me a pretty graceful little bird, about
the size of a jack-snipe, but with longer legs, and most extraordinary
claws. I am ashamed to say I shot this poor little fellow, to examine
him, and found that each toe measured at least three inches from the
leg to the extremity of the claw. This is to enable the bird to run
along safely over the floating leaves of the lotus, on which plant it
seems to get its living. I had never seen one before; and the simple
manner in which Nature had adapted it to its peculiar line of life
struck me as both curious and beautiful. What this little bird's
scientific name is I never heard, but we colonists call it the "Lotus
bird."

As there was a remote chance of the party left with the boats coming in
contact with the blacks, it was deemed advisable to leave them a
trooper, who would more readily recognise their whereabouts than the
white men; therefore a boy known by the not euphonious sobriquet of
"Killjoy," was selected to remain with the pilot and his two boatmen,
and after dividing the big meat damper in five equal portions, the
exploring party, consisting of Dunmore, Ferdinand, Larry, Lizzie and
myself, struck out for the opening in the scrub on the Mackay river.
We descended into the sandy bed, and crossed to the opposite side,
which was much more open country, consisting of park-like land, lightly
timbered, but the soil not nearly so rich as the fertile plain through
which wound the Macalister. It would be tedious to weary my readers
with a minute account of our doings each day; enough to say that we
passed through new country of every description, crossing from side to
side of the Mackay, to cut off its many bends, and that our progress
was but slow, the distant ranges seeming hardly nearer on the third day
than they were at starting. We were dis