Austral English / A dictionary of Australasian words, phrases and usages with those aboriginal-Australian and Maori words which have become incorporated in the language, and the commoner scientific words that have had their origin in Australasia - Edward Ellis Morris

1892. `Scribner's Magazine,' Feb., p. 141:

"Dams as he calls his reservoirs scooped out in the hard soil."

1893. `The Leader,' Jan. 14:

"A boundary rider has been drowned in a dam."

1893. `The Times,' [Reprint] `Letters from Queensland,' p. 68:

"At present few stations are subdivided into paddocks smaller than 20,000 acres apiece. If in each of these there is but one waterhole or dam that can be relied upon to hold out in drought, sheep and cattle will destroy as much grass in tramping from the far corners of the grazing to the drinking spot as they will eat. Four paddocks of 5,000 acres each, well supplied with water, ought to carry almost double the number of sheep."

1896. `The Argus,' March 30, p. 6, col. 9:

"[The murderer] has not since been heard of. Dams and waterholes have been dragged . . . but without result."

<hw>Dammara</hw>, n. an old scientific name of the genus, including the Kauri Pine (q.v.). It is from the Hindustani, damar, `resin.' The name was applied to the Kauri Pine by Lambert in 1832, but it was afterwards found that Salisbury, in 1805, had previously constituted the genus Agathis for the reception of the Kauri Pine and the Dammar Pine of Amboyna. This priority of claim necessitated the modern restoration of Agathis as the name of the genus.

<hw>Damper</hw>, n. a large scone of flour and water baked in hot ashes; the bread of the bush, which is always unleavened. [The addition of water to the flour suggests a more likely origin than that given by Dr. Lang. See quotation, 1847.]