It Would Have Been Highly Amusing For A Looker On To Observe How
Remarkably Eager We Were To Pluck The Feathers From Its Rump, And Cut The
Skin, To See How Thick The Fat Was, And Whether It Was A Rich Yellow, Or
Only Flesh-Coloured.
We had, indeed, a most extraordinary desire for
anything fat; and we soon found where to look for it.
In the emu it
accumulates all over the skin, but particularly on the rump, and between
the shoulders, and round the sternal plate. To obtain the oil, we skinned
those parts, and suspended them before a slow fire, and caught the oil in
our frying pan; this was of a light yellowish colour, tasteless, and
almost free from scent. Several times, when suffering from excessive
fatigue, I rubbed it into the skin all over the body, and its slightly
exciting properties proved very beneficial. It has always been considered
by the white inhabitants of the bush, a good anti-rheumatic.
The sea breeze from the northward still continued during the day; the
nights were clear and dewy, but ceased to be so cold.
I found a piece of granite and a fragment of fortification agate in the
sandy bed of the creek.
Sept. 5. - We travelled about ten miles west by north, to lat. 16 degrees
48 minutes 22 seconds. Having passed a rather open forest of bloodwood,
apple-gum, and leguminous Ironbark, with isolated patches of scrub, and
some dry teat-ree swamps with heaps of calcined mussel-shells, we came to
a thick stringy-bark forest, on a sandy soil, with a hard sandstone
cropping out frequently.
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