The
trees are almost exclusively gum trees, but they differ in
appearance and leaves, according to age and locality. This gives
the appearance of variety, when, in fact, there is none. The wood
is hard and splits easily. The bark is tough and thick, and can be
converted into canoes by closing the ends of a piece taken from
half the circumference of a tree, and tying a cord round the centre
to keep it from spreading. The colour is of a beautiful red. A
moisture sometimes exudes from the leaves in such abundance as to
convey the idea of an animal having been slain under the branches.
It has the smell of carraways and is agreeably sweet. "How it would
delight Bessy and Hannah," (his young sisters, then quite
children), he says, "to go into the woods, picking up comfits under
the trees!"
He then speaks of the blacks in that district; of their habits and
ideas; but expresses a low opinion of their intellectual powers,
and thinks little can be done with them. In May, he wrote to his
mother and myself conjointly, fearing his former communications
might not have reached us, and briefly recapitulating their
purport. I afterwards heard at Deniliquin that he had successfully
performed a surgical operation.
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