019_113016561050028540677983952855564600423

with tracks of native dogs and tracks of natives (their foot prints in the sands). The water falls
21 feet in this gulf and the banks are then largely of a greasy kind of dark clay.
All the water of the gulf is turpid and of a red colour. It is curiously marked even
veined as it were with salt and fresh water which do not properly intermingle. From this
colour which might very appropriately be called the Red Sea. As yet we have seen no sharks or alligators
down here though there are plenty of the former near the mouth of the gulf. It seems to me that the
water is so turpid that they could not see their prey. There are high currents especially at the Gut and every appearance of
a large river making its exit here. Numerous cockatoos and some very bright small
flowers of rich colour. Saw a new species today, a tree with flowers like honeysuckle and scent
somewhat like a lemon. The bottle tree about here produces a large fruit about the size of a swan's egg or
larger having a brighter hued shell with pithy substance in which seeds are imbedded. We found some
broken shells at an old native encampment and came to the conclusion that the natives ate them.
We tried the experiment. At least it seemed as though one may almost as well eat both but after a
little mastication a pleasant tart taste was developed so that they were rather agreeable to chew.
I suppose the cockatoos also eat them for we saw large flocks where these trees grow.
The seeds are probably nutritous as well as the pith-like matter. I shall endeavour to take some
seeds or a frond or two to Sydney with me though our means of
carriage are very limited.