552 NATIVE FOOD SUPPLY. Tastes differ. Captain, now Sir George, Grey, in his Journal of Two Expedi- tions of Discovery in North-west and Western Australia^ vol. ii, p. 259, describes the native supplies of food in the interior as follows : — One mistake very commonly made with regard to the natives of Australia is to imagine they have small means of subsistence, or Mistaken are at times greatly pressed for want of food ; I could produce ideas. many almost humorous instances of the errors which travellers have fallen into upon this point. They lament in their journals that the unfortunate aborigines should be reduced by famine to the miserable necessity of subsisting on certain sorts of food, which they have found near their huts ; whereas in many instances the articles thus quoted by them are those which the natives most prize, and are really neither deficient in flavour nor nutritious qualities. I will give a remarkable example of an error of this kind into which a traveller of great ability has fallen ; but this will only render palpable the ignorance that has prevailed with regard to the habits and customs of this people when in their wild state, for those who frequent European towns and the outskirts of population are soon compelled by the force of circumstances to depart in a great measure from their original habits. Captain Sturt, to whom I allude, says in his travels, vol. i, p. sturt 118 : — " Among other things, we found a number of bark troughs filled with the gum of the mimosa, and vast quantities of gum made into cakes upon the ground. From this it would appear that these unfortunate creatures were reduced to the last extremity, and, being unable to procure any other nourishment^ had been obliged to collect this mucilaginous food." The gum of the mimosa thus referred to is a favourite article of food amongst the natives ; and when it is in season they assemble Mimosa in large numbers upon the plains of the character previously de- s^"^f scribed by Captain Sturt, in order to enjoy this luxury. The pro- fusion in which this gum is found enables large bodies to meet together, which, from their subsistence being derived from wild animals and vegetables of spontaneous growth, they can only do when some particular article is in full season, or when a v^hale is thrown ashore. In order more fully to show how little the liabits of this people have been understood, I may state with regard to this very gum, called by the natives kwoto-nat, that about the time the above account was published by Captain Sturt an expedition was sent out from King George^s Sound, in Western Australia, in Digitized by Google
