s are never wanting at any season, but at Sydney they are seldom
numerous or troublesome. The most nauseous and destructive of all the
insects is a fly which blows not eggs but large living maggots, and if
the body of the fly be opened it is found full of them. Of ants there are
several sorts, one of which bites very severely. The white ant is
sometimes seen. Spiders are large and numerous. Their webs are not only the
strongest, but the finest, and most silky I ever felt. I have often thought
their labour might be turned to advantage. It has, I believe, been proved
that spiders, were it not for their quarrelsome disposition which irritates
them to attack and destroy each other, might be employed more profitably
than silk-worms.

The hardiness of some of the insects deserves to be mentioned. A beetle was
immersed in proof spirits for four hours, and when taken out crawled away
almost immediately. It was a second time immersed, and continued in a glass
of rum for a day and a night, at the expiration of which period it still
showed symptoms of life. Perhaps, however, what I from ignorance deem
wonderful is common.

*****

The last but the most important production yet remains to be considered.
Whether plodding in London, reeking with human blood in Paris or wandering
amidst the solitary wilds of New South Wales--Man is ever an object of
interest, curiosity and reflection.

The natives around Port Jackson are in person rather more diminutive and
slighter made, especially about the thighs and legs, than the Europeans. It
is doubtful whether their society contained a person of six feet high. The
tallest I ever measured, reached five feet eleven inches, and men of his
height were rarely seen. Baneelon, who towered above the majority of his
countrymen, stood barely five feet eight inches high. His other principal
dimensions were as follows:

Girth of the Chest. 2 feet 10 inches
Girth of the Belly. 2 feet 6 1/2 inches
Girth of the Thigh. 18 1/8 inches
Girth of the Leg at the Calf. 12 1/8 inches
Girth of the Leg at the Small. 10 inches
Girth of arm half way between
the shoulder and elbow. 9 inches

Instances of natural deformity are scarce, nor did we ever see one of them
left-handed. They are, indeed, nearly ambidexter; but the sword, the spear
and the fish-gig are always used with the right hand. Their muscular force
is not great