Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, Volume 2 / With Descriptions of the Recently Explored Region of Australia Felix, and of the Present Colony of New South Wales

by T. L. Mitchell

CHAPTER 3.5.

New and remarkable shrub.
Darling tribe again.
Their dispersion by the party.
Cross a tract intersected by deep lagoons.
Huts over tombs.
Another division of the Darling tribe.
Barren sands and the Eucalyptus dumosa.
Plants which grow on the sand and bind it down.
Fish caught.
Aspect of the country to the northward.
Strange natives from beyond the Murray.
They decamp during the night.
Reach the Darling and surprise a numerous tribe of natives.
Piper and his gin explain.
Search for the junction with the Murray.
Return by night.
Followed by the natives.
Horses take fright.
Break loose and run back.
Narrow escape of some men from natives.
Failure of their intended attack.
Different modes of interment.
Reduced appearance of the Darling.
Desert character of the country.
Rainy morning.
Return of the party.
Surprise the females of the tribe.
Junction of the Darling and Murray.
Effect of alternate floods there.

NEW AND REMARKABLE SHRUB.

May 27.

In the scrub adjoining our camp we found a new and remarkably beautiful shrub bearing a fruit, the stone of which was very similar to that of the quandang (Fusanus acuminatus) although there was no resemblance either in the form of the tree or of the flower. This shrub was not unlike the weeping willow in its growth, and the fruit, which grew at the extremities of the drooping branches, had the shape of a pear and a black ring at the broad end. The crop then on the tree was unripe, and was probably a second one; the flower was also budding, and we hoped to see the full blossom on our return. Only three or four of these trees were seen, and they were all on the hill near our encampment. Here likewise grew a new shrubby species of Xerotes, with hard rush-like leaves, but allied to X. gracilis.*

(*Footnote. X. effusa, Lindley manuscripts; acaulis, foliis linearibus longissimis semiteretibus margine scabris dorso striatis: apice dentato tabescente, panicula mascula effusa abbreviata, bracteis acuminatis scariosis pedicello brevioribus.)

A NEW SHRUB, THE Eucarya murrayana (MIHI) AND YOUNG FRUIT.

DARLING TRIBE AGAIN.

We proceeded on our journey as usual, but had not gone far when we heard the voices of a vast body of blacks following our track, shouting prodigiously, and raising war cries. It now became necessary for me to determine whether I was to allow the party under my charge to be perpetually subject to be cut off in detail by waiting until these natives had again actually attacked and slain some of my people, or whether it was not my duty, in a war which not my party, but these savages, had virtually commenced, to anticipate the intended blow. I was at length convinced that, unless I could check their progress in our rear and prevent them from following us so closely, the party would be in danger of being compelled to fight its way back against the whole savage population, who would be assembled at that season of drought on the banks of the large rivers. But in order to ascertain first whether this was the hostile tribe I sent overseer Burnett with Piper and half the party into the scrub which skirted our line of route. We were travelling along the berg or outer bank of the river, a feature which not only afforded the best defensive position but also guided me in tracing the river's course. It was also in many parts the only ground clear of timber or bushes and therefore the best for travelling upon. I directed the men to allow the tribes to pass along our track towards me, as I intended to halt with the carts after crossing the low hill. Piper recognised from this scrub the same people he had seen at Benanee.

DISPERSION OF THE DARLING TRIBE BY THE PARTY.

The natives however having immediately discovered our ambuscade by the howling of one of their dogs, halted and poised their spears; but a man of our party (King) inconsiderately discharging his carabine, they fled as usual to their citadel, the river, pursued and fired upon by the party from the scrub. The firing had no sooner commenced than I perceived from the top of the hill which I ascended some of the blacks, who appeared to be a very numerous tribe, swimming across the Murray. I was not then aware what accidental provocation had brought on this attack without my orders, but it was not the time to inquire; for the men who were with me, as soon as they heard the shots of their comrades and saw me ascend the hill, ran furiously down the steep bank to the river, not a man remaining with the carts. The hill behind which these were posted was about a quarter of a mile from the river, and was very steep on that side, while on the intervening space or margin below lofty gum trees grew, as in other similar situations. By the time I had also got down, the whole party lined the riverbank, the men with Burnett being at some distance above the spot at which I reached it. Most of the natives were then near the other side, and getting out while others were swimming down the stream. The sound of so much firing must have been terrible to them and it was not without effect, if we may credit the information of Piper who was afterwards informed that seven had been shot in crossing the river, and among them the fellow in the cloak, who at Benanee appeared to be the chief. Much as I regretted the necessity for firing upon these savages, and little as the men might have been justifiable under other circumstances for firing upon any body of men without orders, I could not blame them much on this occasion; for the result was the permanent deliverance of the party from imminent danger. Our men were liable in turn to be exposed singly while attending the cattle, which often unavoidably strayed far from the camp during the night; and former experience had, in my mind, rendered the death of some of these men certain. I was indeed satisfied that this collision had been brought about in the most providential manner; for it was probable that, from my regard for the aborigines, I might otherwise have postponed giving orders to fire longer than might have been consistent with the safety of my men. Such was the fate of the barbarians who, a year before, had commenced hostilities by attacking treacherously a small body of strangers, which, had it been sent from heaven, could not have done more to minister to their wants than it did then, nor endured more for the sake of peace and goodwill. The men had then been compelled to fire in their own defence and at the risk of my displeasure. The hostility of these savages had also prevented me from dividing my party, and obliged me to retire from the Darling sooner than I might otherwise have done. It now appeared that they had discovered this, judging from their present conduct, and unappalled by the effect of firearms, to which they were no longer strangers, they had boastingly invaded the haunts of other tribes, more peaceably disposed than themselves, for the avowed purpose of meeting and attacking us. They had persisted in following us with such bundles of spears as we had never seen on other occasions, and they were on the alert to kill any stragglers, having already, as they acknowledged, destroyed two of our cattle.

This collision took place so suddenly that no man had thought of remaining at the heads of the horses and cattle, as already stated; nor was I aware of this until, on returning to them, I found the reins in the hands of Piper's gin; a tall woman who, wrapped in a blanket, with Piper's sword on her shoulder, and having a blind eye, opaque and white like that of some Indian idol, presented rather a singular appearance as she stood the only guardian of all we possessed. Her presence of mind in assuming such a charge on such an occasion was very commendable, and seemed characteristic of the female aborigines.

I gave to the little hill which witnessed this overthrow of our enemies and was to us the harbinger of peace and tranquillity the name of Mount Dispersion.

CROSS A TRACT INTERSECTED BY DEEP LAGOONS.

The day's journey was still before us. On leaving the river we soon encountered a small creek or ana-branch* and, though I made a practice of avoiding all such obstructions by going round rather than crossing them, yet in the present case I was compelled to deviate from my rule on finding that this creek would take me too far northward. Soon after, we approached a lagoon and during the whole day, turn wherever we would, we were met by similar bodies of water or, as I considered them, pools left in the turnings and windings of some ana-branch formed during high floods of the river. Nevertheless I managed to preserve a course in the desired direction; and at length we encamped on the bank of several deep ponds which lay in the channel of a broad watercourse. I was anxious to avoid if possible being shut up between ana-branches and the river lest, as the river seemed rising, I might be at length surrounded by deep water. I was in some uncertainty here about the actual situation of the Murray and our position was anything but good; for it was in the midst of scrubby ground, and did not command, in any way, the place where alone grass enough was to be found for the cattle. The bergs of the river were not to be seen, although the river itself could not be distant; for the whole country traversed this day was of that description which belongs to the margin of streams, being grassy land under an open forest containing goborro and yarra trees. These are seldom found in that region at any considerable distance from the banks of the river, the whole interior country being covered with Eucalyptus dumosa and patches of the pine or Callitris pyramidalis.

(*Footnote. See above.)

PLATE 26: THE RIVER MURRAY, AND DISPERSION OF NATIVES, 27TH MAY, 1836.
Major T.L. Mitchell del. J. Brandord and G. Barnard Lith. J. Graf Printer to Her Majesty.
Published by T. and W. Boone, London.

May 28.

A thick fog hung over us in the morning but it did not impede our progress. For the first three miles our way was along the banks of the channel or lagoon beside which we had passed the night. It then crossed a polygonum flat and several dry hollows, beyond which I at length saw the rising ground of the river-berg and, immediately after, the river itself, flowing by the base of a precipitous red cliff in which the scrubby flat country we were travelling upon abruptly terminated. We had cut off a great bend of the Murray by our intricate journey among the lagoons; and had again reached the river precisely at the point most desirable.

HUTS OVER TOMBS.

On this upper ground we observed several tombs, all enclosed within parterres of the same boat-like shape first seen by us on the day we traced the Lachlan into the basin of the Murrumbidgee. Two of the tombs here consisted of huts, very neatly and completely thatched over, the straw or grass being bound down by a well-wrought net. Each hut had a small entrance on the south-west side, and the grave within was covered with dry grass or bedding on which lay however some pieces of wood. There was a third grave with coverings of the same kind, but it was not so neatly finished, nor was it covered with net.* There were also graves without any covering; one where it appeared to have been burnt; and two old-looking graves were open, empty, and about three feet deep.

(*Footnote. Isaiah 45:4. Who remain among the graves.] "The old Hebrews are charged by the prophet Isaiah with remaining among the graves and lodging in the monuments." See Lewis' Origines Hebraeae volume 3 page 381.)

ANOTHER DIVISION OF THE DARLING TRIBE.

We had not proceeded far through the scrub on the top of the precipice overhanging the river when the usual alarm term "the natives" was passed along to me from the people in the rear of our party. Piper had been told that we should soon see the other division of the Darling tribe, which was still ahead of us; and I concluded that these natives belonged to it and were awaiting us at this point where, as they had foreseen, we were sure to come upon the river. Four or five advanced up to us while the rest followed among the bushes behind. I recognised two men whom I saw last year on the Darling. They begged hard for axes and held out green boughs, but I had not forgotten the treachery of their burning boughs on our former interview and, thinking I recognised the tall man who had been the originator of the war, I went up to him with no very kind feeling; but I was informed he was only that man's brother. My altered manner however was enough for their quick glance; and indeed one of the best proofs that these natives belonged to the Darling tribe was the attention with which they watched me when they asked for tomahawks, and their speaking so much to Piper about Majy. Of the evil tendency of giving these people presents I was now convinced, and fully determined not to give more then. This resolution the natives having discovered very acutely, their ringleaders vanished like phantoms down the steep cliffs, and we heard no more of the rest. It is possible that this portion of the tribe had not then received intelligence of what had befallen the others or they would not have advanced so boldly up. Be that as it may they followed us no more, having probably heard in the course of the day from the division of the tribe which we had driven across the Murray.

BARREN SANDS AND THE EUCALYPTUS DUMOSA. PLANTS WHICH GROW ON THE SAND AND BIND IT DOWN.

The river taking a turn to the southward, we again entered the dumosa scrub but it was more open than we had seen it elsewhere. The soil consisted of barren sand; there was no grass, but there were tufts of a prickly bush which tortured the horses and tore to rags the men's clothes about their ankles. I observed that this bush and the Eucalyptus dumosa grew only where the sand seemed too barren and loose for the production of anything else; so loose indeed was it that, but for this dwarf tree and prickly grass, the sand must have drifted so as to overwhelm the vegetation of adjacent districts, as in other desert regions where sand predominates. Nature appears to have provided curiously against that evil here by the abundant distribution of two plants so singularly adapted to such a soil. The root of the Eucalyptus dumosa resembles that of a large tree; but instead of a trunk only a few branches rise above the ground, forming an open kind of bush, often so low that a man on horseback may look over it for miles. The heavy spreading roots however of this dwarf tree and the prickly grass together occupy the ground and seem intended to bind down the sands of the vast interior deserts of Australia. Their disproportioned roots also prevent the bushes from growing very close together and, the stems being leafless except at the top, this kind of eucalyptus is almost proof against the running fires of the bush. The prickly grass resembles at a distance, in colour and form, an overgrown bush of lavender; but the pedestrian and the horse both soon find that it is neither lavender nor grass, the blades consisting of sharp spikes which shoot out in all directions, offering real annoyance to men and horses.

On ascending a small sandhill about three P.M. I perceived that I could not hope to reach the river in the direction I was pursuing. Accordingly I turned to the left and, entering a rather extensive valley which was bounded on the south by the river-bergs at a distance of three or four miles, we encamped on the immediate bank of the Murray shortly before sunset. There was little grass about the river for the ferruginous finely-grained sandstone formed still the riverbank, and was exactly similar to the arenaceous rock on the eastern coast.

FISH CAUGHT.

The river had more the appearance of having a flood in it now than at the time we first made it, and here we caught some good cod-perch (Gristes peelii) one weighing seventeen pounds. As we came along the lagoons in the morning of this day we shot a new kind of duck.

May 29.

The broad slopes of the river-berg, or second bank, were generally distinguished by a strip of clear ground which we found the best for travelling upon; and it afforded us also the satisfaction of overlooking the friendly river at a greater or less distance on the left. The Murray meandered between the opposite bergs of the valley or basin which was here about four miles wide.

ASPECT OF THE COUNTRY TO THE NORTHWARD.

From a hill situated between the river and the scrub I this day saw, for the first time since we left the Lachlan, a ridge on the horizon. It appeared to the northward, the west end being distant about seven miles; and it was long, flat, and not much higher than the surrounding country. An extensive plain reminded us of those on the Darling and in the more hollow part of it I perceived the dry bed of a lake, bordered by some verdure. On proceeding I observed that the bergs fell off; and we descended into a valley where a line of yarra trees enveloped a dry creek, very much resembling the one seen by us on the Darling and named Clover-creek. Crossing this dry course we soon regained the berg of the river, and found it as favourable to our progress as before but, being of red sand, I at length led the party along the firm clay at the base of the higher ground.

STRANGE NATIVES FROM BEYOND THE MURRAY.

As the dogs were chasing a kangaroo across a bit of open flat four natives appeared at the other side. They came frankly up to us and they were well painted, broad white patches marking out the larger muscles of the breasts, thighs, and arms, and giving their persons exactly the appearance of savages as I have seen them represented in theatres. Their hair was of a reddish hue and they were altogether men of a different make from the tribe of the Darling. We accordingly allowed them to remain in the camp which I took up on the margin of the Murray soon after our meeting with them. They told us that a creek named Bengallo joined the Murray amongst the numerous lagoons where we had been encamped two days before; and they supposed it came from the hills near the Bogan, because natives from that river sometimes came to the Murray by the banks of the creek. They also informed us that the name of a river to the southward was Perrainga; and (if we understood each other rightly by Piper's interpretation) their name for lake Alexandrina was Kayinga: a lake which however had, according to them, a wide deep outlet to the sea.

THEY DECAMP DURING THE NIGHT.

During that night it rained heavily and the natives left us, without notice, during an interval of fair weather. There was much scrub about the river and I was not quite satisfied with the position of our camp, but a strict watch was always kept up, and we had excellent watch-dogs, no bad protection against the midnight treachery of the aborigines.

REACH THE DARLING AND SURPRISE A NUMEROUS TRIBE OF NATIVES.

May 30.

We heard our new acquaintance cooeying in the bush but we gave no attention to them and proceeded on our journey. The smooth and verdant escarp of the river-berg guided us, while the river itself was sometimes at hand and sometimes four miles off. This day I recognised several shrubs which I had seen before only on the Darling. At length the berg terminated altogether in a smooth round hill beyond which lay a low woody country, intersected by lines of yarra trees in almost every direction. I thought I perceived in one of these lines the course of the Darling coming into the extensive valley from the northward; and the old hands exclaimed, when they saw the bare plains to the north-west of our camp, that we had got upon the Darling at last. Beyond this valley to the south-westward I perceived that the bergs of the opposite bank of the Murray were continuous and advanced to a point about west-south-west. Upon the whole I was satisfied that we were near the junction of the two rivers; and we encamped on the lower extremity of the point, already mentioned, which overlooked a small lagoon and was not above three hundred yards from an angle of the Murray.

May 31.

I now ventured to take a north-west course in expectation of falling in with the supposed Darling. We crossed first a plain about two miles in breadth, when we came to a line of yarra trees which enveloped a dry creek from the north-east, and very like Clover-creek. We next travelled over ground chiefly open, and at four miles crossed a sandhill on which was a covered tomb, after the fashion of those on the Murray. On descending from the sand-ridge we approached a line of yarra trees which overhung a reach of green and stagnant water. I had scarcely arrived at the bank when my attention was drawn to a fire about a hundred yards before us and from beside which immediately sprung up a numerous tribe of blacks who began to jump, wring their hands, and shriek, as if in a state of utter madness or despair.

PIPER AND HIS GIN EXPLAIN.

These savages rapidly retired towards others who were at a fire on a further part of the bank, but Piper and his gin, going boldly forward, succeeded at length in getting within hail and in allaying their fears.

SEARCH FOR THE JUNCTION WITH THE MURRAY.

While he was with these natives I had again leisure to examine the watercourse upon which we had arrived. I could not consider it the Darling as seen by me above, and so little did it seem the sister stream to the Murray as described by Sturt that I at first thought it nothing but an ana-branch of that river. Neither did these natives satisfy me about Oolawambiloa, by which I had supposed the Darling was meant but respecting which they still pointed westward. They however told Piper that the channel we had reached contained all the waters of Wambool (the Macquarie) and Callewatta (the upper Darling) and I accordingly determined to trace it up at least far enough to identify it with the latter. But I thought it right that we should endeavour first to recognise the junction with the Murray as seen by Captain Sturt. The natives said it was not far off; and I accordingly encamped at two o'clock that I might measure back to that important point. Thirteen natives set out as if to accompany us, for they begged that we would not go so fast. Three of them however soon set off at full speed as if on a message; and the remaining ten fell behind us. We had then passed the camp of their gins and I supposed at the time that their only object was to see us beyond these females, Piper being with us.

RETURN BY NIGHT.

I pursued the river through a tortuous course until sunset when I was obliged to quit it and return to the camp by moonlight without having seen anything of the Murray. I had however ascertained that the channel increased very much in width lower down and, when it was filled with the clay-coloured water of the flood then in the Murray, it certainly had the appearance of a river of importance.

FOLLOWED BY THE NATIVES.

June 1.

The country to the eastward seemed so dry and scrubby that I could not hope in returning to join Mr. Stapylton's party or reach the Murray by any shorter route than that of our present track; and I therefore postponed any further survey back towards the junction of the Darling and Murray until I should be returning this way. We accordingly proceeded upwards and were followed by the natives. They were late in coming near us however which Piper and his gin accounted for as follows: As soon as it was known to them, the day before, that we were gone to the junction, the strong men of the tribe went by a shorter route; but they were thrown out and disappointed by our stopping short of that promising point. There they had passed the night and, having been busy looking for our track in the morning, the earth's surface being to them a book they always read, they were late in following our party.

Kangaroos were more numerous and larger here than at any other part we had yet visited. This day one coming before me I fired at it with my rifle; and a man beside me, after asking my permission, fired also. The animal nevertheless ran amongst the party behind, some of whom hastily and without permission discharged their carabines also.

HORSES TAKE FRIGHT.

At this four horses took fright and ran back at full speed along our track. Several of the men who went after these horses fell in with two large bodies of natives coming along this track, and one or two men had nearly fallen into their hands twice.

BREAK LOOSE AND RUN BACK.

Tantragee (McLellan) when running at full speed pursued by bands of savages escaped only by the opportune appearance of others of our men who had caught the horses and happened to come up.

NARROW ESCAPE OF SOME MEN FROM NATIVES.

The natives then closed on our carts, and accompanied them in single files on each side; but as they appeared to have got rid of all their spears I saw no danger in allowing them to join us in that manner. Chancing to look back at them however, when riding some way ahead, the close contact of such numbers induced me to halt and call loudly, cautioning the men, upon which I observed an old man and several others suddenly turn and run and, on my going to the carts, the natives fell back, those in their rear setting off at full speed.

FAILURE OF THEIR INTENDED ATTACK.

Soon after I perceived the whole tribe running away, as if a plan had been suddenly frustrated. Piper and his gin, who had been watching them attentively, now came up and explained to me these movements. It appeared that the natives entertained the idea that our clothes were impervious to spears, and had therefore determined on a trial of strength by suddenly overpowering us, for which purpose they had planted (i.e. hidden) their spears and all encumbrances, and had told off for each of us six or eight of their number, whose attack was to be sudden and simultaneous. A favourable moment had not occurred before they awoke my suspicions; and thus their motives for sudden retreat were to be understood. That party consisted of strong men, neither women nor boys being among them; and although we had little to fear from such an attack, having arms in our hands, the scheme was very audacious and amounted to a proof that these savages no sooner get rid of their apprehensions than they think of aggression. I had on several occasions noticed and frustrated dispositions apparently intended for sudden attacks, for the natives seemed always inclined to await favourable opportunities, and were doubtless aware of the advantage of suddenness of attack to the assailants.* Nothing seemed to excite the surprise of these natives, neither horses nor bullocks, although they had never before seen such animals, nor white men, carts, weapons, dress, or anything else we had. All were quite new to them and equally strange, yet they looked at the cattle as if they had been always amongst them, and they seemed to understand at once the use of everything.

(*Footnote. For a proof of this see extract from Sydney Herald of May 21st 1838 in Appendix 2.3.)

We continued our journey and soon found all the usual features of the Darling; the hills of soft red sand near the river covered with the same kind of shrubs seen so much higher up.

DIFFERENT MODES OF INTERMENT.

The graves had no longer any resemblance to those on the Murrumbidgee and Murray, but were precisely similar to the places of interment we had seen on the Darling, being mounds surrounded by and covered with dead branches and pieces of wood.* On these lay the same singular casts of the head in white plaster which we had before seen only at Fort Bourke.** It is indeed curious to observe the different modes of burying adopted by the natives on different rivers. For instance on the Bogan they bury in graves covered like our own and surrounded with curved walks and ornamented ground.*** On the Lachlan under lofty mounds of earth, seats being made around them. On the Murrumbidgee and Murray the graves are covered with well thatched huts containing dried grass for bedding and enclosed by a parterre of a particular shape, like the inside of a whale-boat.**** On the Darling, as above stated, the graves are in mounds* covered with dead branches and limbs of trees, and are surrounded by a ditch, which here we found encircled by a fence of dead limbs and branches.

(*Footnote. See Plate 16 volume 1.)

(**Footnote. See Volume 1.)

(***Footnote. See Plate 20 volume 1.)

(****Footnote. See above.)

REDUCED APPEARANCE OF THE DARLING.

As we proceeded the sandhills became more numerous and their surface softer; while the scrub was at length so close that it was difficult to follow any particular bearing in travelling through it. Near the river the surface was broken up by beds of dry lagoons which evidently became branches of the main stream in times of flood; and the intervening ground was covered with Polygonum junceum. At length I reached an angle of the river and encamped on a small flat beside a sandhill. Here the Darling was only a chain of ponds and I walked across its channel dry-shod, the bed consisting of coarse sand and angular fragments of ferruginous sandstone. The width and depth between the immediate banks were about the same as I had found them in the most narrow and shallow parts during my former journey. While I stood on the adverse side or right bank of this hopeless river I began to think I had pursued its course far enough. The identity was no longer a question.

DESERT CHARACTER OF THE COUNTRY.

The country on its banks in this part presented also the same unvaried desert features that it did in the districts examined by us during the preceding year. The Murray, unlike the Darling, was a permanent river, and I thought it advisable to exhaust no more of my means in the survey of deserts but rather employ them and the time still at my disposal in exploring the sources of that river, according to my instructions and in hopes of discovering a better country. My anxiety about the safety of the depot brought me more speedily to this determination. During the wet and cold weather there might be less activity among the savage natives, but it was not probable that the tribe which had collected 500 men to attack Captain Sturt would be quiet in my rear after having lost some of their number. To be in detached parties amongst a savage population was perilous in proportion to the length of time we continued separate; and I did not feel warranted in exhausting all my means in order to attain, by a circuitous route, the point where my survey ought to have commenced; while a second duty for which the means now left were scarcely adequate remained to be performed. I had already reached a point far above where any boat could be taken, or even any heavy carts; and nothing was to be gained by following the river further.

The natives were heard by Piper several times during the day's journey in the woods beyond the river, as if moving along the right bank in a route parallel with ours; but they did not appear near our camp, although their smoke was seen at a distance.

RAINY MORNING.

June 2.

For several days the barometer had been falling and this morning the weather was rainy and cold.

RETURN OF THE PARTY.

After tracing the further course of the Darling for some distance and obtaining, during an interval of sunshine, a view from a sandhill which commanded a very extensive prospect to the northward, I commenced the retrograde movement along our route, which was but too deeply visible in the sand. From what Piper had said the men expected an engagement during the morning; and it was doubtful, on account of the wetness of the day, whether their pieces would go off if the natives came on; but fortunately we continued our journey unmolested. We reached our former encampment notwithstanding the unfavourable state of the ground, and again pitched our tents upon it. We found among the scrubs this day a new curious species of Baeckea with extremely small scattered leaves not larger than grains of millet, plano-convex and covered with pellucid dots.*

(*Footnote. B. crassifolia, Lindley manuscripts; glaberrima, foliis subrotundis oblongisque obtusis plano-convexis crassis, floribus solitariis axillaribus pedicellatis cernuis, laciniis calycinis marginatis integerrimis petalis integris brevioribus.)

SURPRISE THE FEMALES OF THE TRIBE.

June 3.

The natives had not again appeared, so that Piper's conjecture that they were moving up the river by the opposite bank with a view to assemble the tribes higher up appeared to be correct. Their gins had been left at their old camp; for as the party crossed a flat not far from it, and I fired at a kangaroo, their voices were immediately heard, signal columns of smoke arose in the air, and they hurried with their children to the opposite side of the Darling. From this astonishment on their part at our appearance, and especially from their flight, knowing well then who we were, it was not improbable that they knew the men were absent on some mischievous scheme affecting us.

JUNCTION OF THE DARLING AND MURRAY.

I struck out of the former line of route for the purpose of extending my measurement to the junction of the rivers, and thus at length found the Darling within a zone of trees which I had formerly taken for the line of the Murray. The banks were high and the channel was also much broader here. After tracing this river about four miles I found that the still but turbid backwater from the larger stream nearly reached the top of the grassy bank of the other. At length I perceived the Murray before me coming from the south-south-east, a course directly opposed to that in which I had followed the Darling for a mile. Both rivers next turned south-west, then westward, leaving a narrow tongue of land between, and from the point where they both turned westward to their junction at the extremity of this ground between them, I found that the distance was exactly three-quarters of a mile. A bank of sand extended further and, on standing upon this and looking back, I recognised the view given in Captain Sturt's work and the adjacent localities described by him. The state of the rivers was no longer however the same as when this spot was first visited. All the water visible now belonged to the Murray, whose course was rapid, while its turbid flood filled also the channel of the Darling, but was there perfectly still. We were then distant about a hundred miles from the rest of the party who, before we could join them, might have had enough to do with the natives. I thought that in case it might ever be necessary to look for us, this junction was the most likely spot where traces might be sought; and I therefore buried near the point, beside a tree marked with a large M and the word Dig, a phial in which I placed a paper containing a brief statement of the circumstances under which we had arrived there, and our proposed route to the depot, adding also the names of the men with me. As the ground was soft it was not necessary to dig but merely to drop the phial into a hole made with the scabbard of my sabre; and I hoped that the bottle would escape in consequence the notice of the natives.

EFFECT OF ALTERNATE FLOODS THERE.

The greater width and apparently important character of the Darling near its mouth may perhaps be accounted for by supposing that floods do not always occur in it and the Murray at the same time. The remoteness of the sources of the two rivers and the consequent difference of climate may occasion a flood in the one, while the waters of the other may be very low. That this is likely to happen sometimes may be inferred from the difference between the relative state of the atmosphere on the eastern coast and on the Darling. This difference seems to have been so considerable during the last journey as materially to have affected our barometrical measurements taken simultaneously with observations at Sydney. When the bed of the greater river is also the deepest any flood descending by the other channel when the larger stream is low must flow with greater force into that which is deeper, and in a soft and yielding soil may thus increase the width of its own channel. On the contrary a flood coming down the greater river while the minor channel may happen to be dry must first flow upwards some miles and so fill this channel and, being thus affected both by the rising and subsidence of the greater stream, this process would have had a tendency to deepen and widen the lower part of the Darling.