eated in the circle
of women, so as to have their backs turned to the dancers or actors,
their faces still being wholly concealed. They remained seated,
motionless, taking no part in the singing or the gestures of
encouragement indulged in by the other women. It was subsequently
explained by a protector, that these were women who had daughters
betrothed to the men of their tribe, and that during the period of
betrothment the mothers are always thus rigidly veiled.

Near Mount Macedon, thirty miles North-West from Melbourne, there has
been discovered, I was informed, a quarry of marble of a very fine
quality; and in the same neighbourhood is an extinct crater. The
formation at and in the immediate vicinity of Melbourne, is of tertiary
deposits associated with arenaceous older rocks.

We returned to the ships by a short route leading direct from Melbourne
to the northern shore of Hobson's Bay. During the walk I was much struck
with the great risk that people run in selecting land from a map of this
country, half of our road lying over a rich loam, and the other half over
soft sand. The trees swarmed with large locusts (the cicada) quite
deafening us with their shrill buzzing noise.

MANNA.

We found the branches of these trees and the ground underneath strewed
over with a white substance resembling small flakes of snow, called by
the colonists manna. I am aware that an erroneous idea exists that this
matter is deposited by the locusts; but in fact it is an exudation from
the Eucalyptus; and although I saw it beneath another kind of tree, it
must have been carried there by the wind. A different sort, of a pale
yellow colour, is found on a smaller species of Eucalyptus growing on
highlands, and is much sought after for food by the natives, who
sometimes scrape from the tree as much as a pound in a quarter of an
hour. It has the taste of a delicious sweetmeat, with an almond flavour,
and is so luscious that much cannot be eaten of it. This is well worthy
of attention from our confectioners at home, and it may hereafter form an
article of commerce, although from what has fallen under my own
observation, and from what I have learnt from Mr. Eyre and others, I
should say it is not of frequent occurrence. The first kind, being found
strewed underneath the tree probably exudes from the leaf, whilst the
second oozes from the stem. The wood of the latter is much used for fuel
by the natives, especially in night-fishing, and bur