y and collectedly, and before he requires it; whilst the
European, even if acquainted with the method of obtaining it, would not
resort to it until the last extremity, when the body was fatigued and
heated by previous exertion, the mouth dry and parched by thirst, and the
mind excited and anxious from apprehension. The natural consequence of
such a very different combination of circumstances would be, that the
native would obtain an abundant and satisfying supply, whilst the
European would never be able to procure a sufficiency to appease his
thirst, but would rather fatigue and exhaust his strength the more, from
his want of skill and experience, and from his body and mind being both
in an unfit state for this particular kind of exertion. Such at least, on
many various occasions, I have found to be the case both with myself, and
with natives with me who have not been accustomed to the scrub, or to
this method of procuring water. The difficulty and labour of finding and
digging out the roots, our want of skill in selecting proper ones, the
great dust arising from the loose, powdery soil in which they were, and
our own previously excited and exhausted state, have invariably prevented
us from deriving the full advantage we expected from our efforts.

In cases of extreme thirst, where the throat is dry and parched, or life
at all in danger, the toil of digging for the roots would be well repaid
by the relief afforded. I have myself, in such cases, found that though I
could by no means satiate my thirst, I could always succeed in keeping my
mouth cool and moist, and so far in rendering myself equal to exertions I
could not otherwise have made. Indeed, I hold it impossible that a
person, acquainted with this means of procuring water, and in a district
where the gum-scrub grew, could ever perish from thirst in any moderate
lapse of time, if he had with him food to eat, and was not physically
incapable of exertion. Under such circumstances, the moisture he would be
able to procure from the roots, would, I think, be quite sufficient to
enable him to eat his food, and to sustain his strength for a
considerable time, under such short stages as would gradually conduct him
free from his embarrassments.

In addition to the value of the gum-scrub to the native, as a source from
whence to obtain his supply of water, it is equally important to him as
affording an article of food, when his other resources have failed. To
procure this, t