No portion of the globe is more thickly inhabited, or affords, in proportion to its size, a greater amount of animal enjoyment than did this wave-tossed isle.  On it were innumerable barnacles, several species of teredo, one of which, having its head shaped like a screw split into two equal portions, I believe to have been quite new.  Many varieties of crab and minute insects shaped like a slug fed on the seaweed growing on the log.

These last animals were of different lengths.  They were shaped like a caterpillar and composed of fifty-six rings; the stomach could only be distinguished from the back by a sort of excrescence which grew on the latter; each ring or division of the body was furnished with two pairs of legs, one pair pointing downwards from the stomach, the other pair projecting from the back; these legs were composed of bristles, and by sticking them into the timber they were able to maintain their hold and to walk along.  In thus progressing they drew into a case the legs of the rings they were going to move, and pushed them forward by means of the other legs, and then, letting down the legs they had drawn into the case, they stuck them into the wood and made good their ground.  Their habit was to lie about amongst the weeds that grew on the tree or to creep into some large holes that were in it.  They did not die when I took them out of water but lived for sixteen hours, and were then as well and strong as ever, only dying after they had been put into spirits.

I got also two pieces of stones from the roots of this tree; they were small, quite angular, and had been carried this distance from the continent of America without any appearance of being water-worn.  This must often take place when trees are blown down and washed away by floods, and in this manner angular pieces of stone may be conveyed many miles from the rock from which they were derived by the agency of water, and yet not be water-worn.

August 31.

At 11 hours 30 minutes A.M. we found a portion of the timber of a ship on the water, containing animals similar to those on the pine-tree yesterday:  this was perforated through and through by different species of teredo.

CHAPTER 8.  THE OVERLANDERS.

CLASS OF PERSONS.

It is to be expected that a totally new state of things will, in recently settled countries, give rise to different orders or classes of men unknown in older lands, but who have been called into existence by novel circumstances, and whose energies have been so developed as best to suit the modifications which these hitherto unexperienced causes may produce.  In collecting information regarding the condition of our settlements in Australia my attention was particularly drawn to the mode of life pursued by some of my enterprising fellow-countrymen, known there under the denomination of Overlanders, and which is characterised by several remarkable peculiarities well deserving of observation, particularly at a time when so many young and adventurous spirits are looking towards that continent as the land of their future fortunes and home.