rowed into the
earth until it is hooked. Grubs are procured at a depth of seven feet in
this way without the delay or trouble of digging.

Moths are procured as before described; or the larger varieties are
caught at nights whilst flying about.

Fungi are abundant, and of great variety. Some are obtained from the
surface of the ground, others below it, and others again from the trunks
and boughs of trees.

Roots of all kinds are procured by digging, one of the most important
being that of the flag or cooper's reed, which grows in marshes or
alluvial soils that are subject to periodical inundations. This is used
more or less at all seasons of the year, but is best after the floods
have retired and the tops have become decayed and been burnt off. The
root is roasted in hot ashes, and chewed, when it affords a nutritious
and pleasant farinaceous food.

The belillah is another important bulbous root, which also grows on lands
subject to floods. It is about the size of a walnut, of a hard and oily
nature, and is prepared by being roasted and pounded into a thin cake
between two stones. Immense tracts of country are covered with this plant
on the flats of the Murray, which in the distance look like the most
beautiful and luxuriant meadows. After the floods have retired I have
seen several hundreds of acres, with the stems of the plant six or seven
feet high, and growing so closely together as to render it very difficult
to penetrate far amongst them.

The thick pulpy leaf of the mesembryanthemum is in general use in all
parts of Australia which I have visited, and is eaten as a sort of relish
with almost every other kind of food. That which grows upon the elevated
table lands is preferred to that which is found in the valleys. It is
selected when the full vigour of the plant begins to decline and the tips
of the leaves become red, but before the leaf is at all withered. The
fruit is used both when first ripe and also after it has become dried up
and apparently withered. In each case it has an agreeable flavour and is
much prized by the natives.

Many other descriptions of fruits and berries are made use of in
different parts of the continent, the chief of which, so far as their use
has come under my own observation, are--

1. A kind of fruit called in the Moorunde dialect "ketango," about the
size and shape of a Siberian crab, but rounder. When this is ripe, it is
of a deep red colour, and consists of a solid mealy su