"Johnny-cakes, though they are smaller and very thin, and made in a similar way [sc. to dampers: see <i>Damper</i>]; when eaten hot they are excellent, but if allowed to get cold they become leathery."
1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance of Australia,' p. 3:
"Johnny-cakes are made with nothing but flour, but there is a great art in mixing them. If it is done properly they are about the lightest and nicest sort of bread that can be made; but the efforts of an amateur generally result in a wet heavy pulp that sticks round one's teeth like bird-lime."
1890. `The Argus,' Aug. 16, p. 13, col. 1:
"Here I, a new chum, could, with flour and water and a pinch of baking-powder, make a sweet and wholesome johnny cake."
1892. Mrs. Russell, `Too Easily Jealous,' p. 273 :
"Bread was not, and existed only in the shape of johnny-cakes —flat scones of flour and water, baked in the hot ashes."
1894. `The Argus,' March 10, p. 4, col. 6:
"It is also useful to make your damper or `Johnny-cake,' which serves you in place of yeast bread. A Johnny-cake is made thus:—Put a couple of handfuls of flour into your dish, with a good pinch of salt and baking soda. Add water till it works to a stiff paste. Divide it into three parts and flatten out into cakes about half an inch thick. Dust a little flour into your frying-pan and put the cake in. Cook it slowly over the fire, taking care it does not burn, and tossing it over again and again. When nearly done stand it against a stick in front of the fire, and let it finish baking while you cook the other two. These, with a piece of wallaby and a billy of tea, are a sweet meal enough after a hard day's work."
<hw>Jolly-tail</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Tasmanian name for the larger variety of the fish <i>Galaxias attenuatus</i>, Jenyns, and other species of <i>Galaxias</i> called <i>Inanga</i> (q.v.) in New Zealand. <i>Galaxias weedoni</i> is called the <i>Mersey Jolly-tail</i>, and <i>Galaxias atkinsoni</i>, the <i>Pieman Jolly-tail</i>. Pieman and Mersey are two Tasmanian rivers. See <i>Mountain-Trout</i>.