290 THE NATIVES 1788 though we were ia want q£ proviaions for the last two days, pro- 15 Maj'. cured us barelj suffioie&t for two meals. These huts consist of Qoly a single piece of hark, about eleven feet in l>«agth, and from four to six feet in breadth, being, ^en stripped from the tree, bent in the middle, and set up aa children put up a card, affording shdter Native huts, against a shower of rain, if you sit und^ it. The hut may perhaps only be intendisd to hide them from the animals they lay in wait for. Near one of these huts we found some of the bones of a kangaroo, and saw several trees that were on fire ; the natives, I suppose, had left them on our approach. I also found the root of fern, or something like the fern root., that had been chewed by one of the natives ; he could only have left the spot a few minutes^ but we never saw any of them, and I believe their numbers in these woods Natives in are very small. Wheth^ they live in the woods by choice or are driven from the society of those who inhabit the sea-coast, or whether they travel to a distant part of the country, I can form no judgment at (U'esent The bark of many of the trees was cut in notches, and at the foot of one tree we found the for of a flying squirrel. Many trees were seen with holes that had been Hunting enlarged by the natives to get at the animal — either the squirreiy opoasums. j^nj^g^j^Q ^^ q,. opossum — ^for the going in of which they wait under their temporary huts; and as the enlarging of these holes could only be done with the shell they use to separate the oysters from the rocks, it muat require great patience. Against several trees, where the hole was near the ground but too high to reach, boughs of trees were laid for to climb up by. We saw many placea where the natives had made fires, but at one place only were any oyster or mussel shells seen, and there not more than half a dozen, and no flsh-bones ; so that when they go inland they certainly do not cany any flsh to support them. The curious displays of aboriginal art to be seen on the rocks near the sea-coast did not escape Phillip's attention. In his time it is probable that nearly every flat rock about Port Jackson^ Botany Bay, and Broken Bay was orna- mented with a representation of animal life, or of native Native weapons, either carved or painted ; but very few specimens of the kind are to be met with in the present day.*
- Surgeon White, who was with Phillip on his expedition of the Ififih
April, 1788, relates that they met .with *' various figares cat on the SBiooth Digitized by Google
