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cockatoos. It is singular they are so scarce in menageries. I suppose they must be more delicate than the white sort, but it is very difficult to obtain them here, for they do not build their nests in this neighbourhood (as the natives inform us), and an old one would not do. Two nights since my servants were roused by the screams of a kitten, which was running about wildly, as if under the influence of terror and pain. They feared to meddle with it, and heard the wailings continued afterwards, but fainter and fainter till they died away. In the morning the kitten was not to be found, nor has any trace of it been seen. It is thought that a snake must have bit it in the first instance, and afterwards swallowed it. I have seen Dale's panorama of King George's Sound. It looks well upon paper, and is a very good representation of the Sound and harbour; but the land there is very poor near the coast, and for perhaps 20 or 30 miles. Of course you must be aware that the smoke-dried face of Yagan cannot have the slightest resemblance to his living face, which was plump with a burly-headed look about it. I defy his very mother to recognize the face of her own son now, and I do not think she is craniologist enough to recognize his head. Dale has written to me, but I have not yet seen his letter, for S— has carried it off also.
Friday.—Have been in Perth for a few days. Bought a Leghorn hat for 13s., and, having turned up part of the brim, wear it as a capital screen from the sun. One of the settlers who has come here in the Hero is a Mr. Murray, from Scotland, who is a relative of the Slacks, of Derry, and has been there often. He dined here to-day. There has been experienced in the York district a hail shower of extraordinary severity, such as has not been seen nor dreamt of in this colony before. The hailstones are described to have been as large as pullet's eggs. Some sheep are said to have been killed by the storm, and some of the crops beaten all to pieces. It was very partial in its effects. I picked an ear of ripe
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