I was vexed at this, and gave him a good scolding for his negligence, after which I endeavoured to ascertain what had so thoroughly put him out of humour, for ordinarily he was one of the best tempered natives I had met with: a single sentence revealed the whole--"The----dogs had eaten the skin." This observation came from the very bottom of his soul, and at once gave me an idea of the magnitude of the disappointment he had sustained; the fact was, upon leaving the camp in the morning he had taken a firestick in his hand, and gone straight back to where we skinned the kangaroo on the 21st, with the intention of singeing off the hair and eating the skin, which had been left hanging over a bush.

Upon his arrival he found it gone: the wild dogs had been beforehand with him and deprived him of the meal he expected; hence his gloomy, discontented look upon his return.

As yet I had not told him that I had been fishing; but upon showing him what I had brought home, and giving him the two largest for supper, his brow again cleared, and he voluntarily offered to go out again to try to get a kangaroo to-morrow.
May 23 .-- Leaving Wylie asleep at the camp, I set off early to fish at Point Malcolm.

After catching four rock-fish, weighing five pounds, and losing several hooks, I commenced hunting about among the rocks for crabs, of which I procured about a dozen They were quite different from the English crab, being very small, not more than three or four inches in diameter, and without any meat in the inside of the shell; but the chine and claws afforded very fair pickings.

Upon returning to the camp, I learnt from Wylie with great satisfaction that he had shot another kangaroo as he went to bring up the horses.