e almond, and inside the
rind was a shell containing a soft white pulp, in which were placed a
species of almond, very palatable to the taste, and arranged in this pulp
much in the manner in which the seeds are placed in the pomegranate. Upon
the bark of these trees being cut they yielded in small quantities a
nutritious white gum, which both in taste and appearance resembles
macaroni; and upon this bark being soaked in hot water an agreeable
mucilaginous drink was produced.

This tree is, from this combination of useful qualities, a vegetable
production of no slight value, and probably comes near the cocoa-nut tree
in value. Its worth is well known to the natives for its vicinity is one
of their favourite haunts. Around nearly all of them I have found marks
of their fires, and on many of these trees were several successive rows
of notches, formed in this manner:

All but the last row being invariably scratched out. These rows of
notches were evidently of different ages, and I imagine must indicate the
number of nuts taken each year from the tree.* I often also found rude
drawings scratched upon the trees, but none of these sketches indicated
anything but a very ordinary degree of talent, even for a savage: some
were so imperfect that it was impossible to tell what they were meant to
represent.

(*Footnote. This tree was also observed on this part of the continent by
Captain King, who met with it both at Cambridge Gulf and Careening Bay,
and describes it as follows: Mr. Cunningham was fortunate in finding the
fruit of the tree that was first seen by us at Cambridge Gulf, and had
for some time puzzled us from its immense size and peculiar appearance.
It proved to be a tree of the Natural Order Capparides, and was thought
to be a Capparis; the gouty habit of the stem, which was soft and spongy,
gave it an appearance of disease; but as all the specimens, from the
youngest plant to the full-grown tree, possessed the same deformed
appearance, it was evidently the peculiarity of its habit. The stem of
the largest of these trees measured twenty-nine feet in girt, whilst its
height did not exceed twenty-five feet. It bore some resemblance to the
Adansonia figured in the account of Captain Tuckey's expedition to Congo.
King's Australia volume 1 page 423.)

SINGULAR PIECES OF SANDSTONE.

I this day again remarked a circumstance which had before this period
elicited my attention; which was that we occasionally found fixed in