All the water which we had used during five months belonged to the basin of the Darling, but today we again tasted of that from channels which led towards the Lachlan. The chief sources of the Bogan arise in Hervey's range, and also in that much less elevated country situated between the Lachlan and the Macquarie. The uniformity of the little river Bogan from its spring to its junction with the Darling is very remarkable. In a course of 250 miles no change is observable in the character of its banks, or the breadth of its bed, neither are the ponds near its source less numerous or of less magnitude than those near its junction with the principal stream. Mr. Dixon estimated the velocity of the current at four miles per hour where its course is most westerly. There are few or no pebbles in its bed, and no reeds grow upon the banks, which are generally sloping and of naked earth but marked with lines of flood similar to those of the Darling. It has often second banks and, as near that river, a belt of dwarf eucalypti, box, or rough gum encloses the more stately flooded-gumtrees with the shining white bark which grow on the immediate borders of the river. It has also its plains along the banks, some of them being very extensive; but the soil of these is not only much firmer, but is also clothed with grass and fringed with a finer variety of trees and bushes than those of the Darling. Yet in the grasses there is not such wonderful variety as I found in those on the banks of that river. Of twenty-six different kinds gathered by me there I found only four on the Bogan, and not more than four other varieties throughout the whole course. It appeared that where land was best and grass most abundant the latter consisted of one or two kinds only, and on the contrary that where the surface was nearly bare the greatest variety of grasses appeared, as if nature allowed more plants to struggle for existence where fewest were actually thriving.
NATIVE INHABITANTS ON ITS BANKS.
The aboriginal inhabitants of the banks of the Bogan include several distinct tribes.
1. Near the head of the river is the tribe of Bultje, composed of many intelligent natives, who have acquired a tolerable knowledge of our language; the number of this tribe is about 120. One, or in some cases two, of the front teeth of males is extracted on arriving at the age of 14.
2. The next is the Myall tribe, who inhabit the central parts about Cudduldury, at the great bend of the Bogan to the northward. These natives can scarcely speak a word of our language, and they have several curious customs. Some of the young men are gaily dressed with feathers, are all called by one name, Talambe, and great care is taken of them. The chief and many of the tribe say they have no name, and when any others are asked the names of such persons they shake their heads, and return no answer. The tribes in various parts of the colony give the name of Myall to others less civilised than themselves, but these natives seemed to glory in the name, and had it often in their mouths. They were the only natives I ever knew who acknowledged that they were Myalls; and I can say of them, as far as our own intercourse enabled me, that they were the most civil tribe we ever met with. They do not extract the front teeth.
3. The Bungan tribe, with whom the one last mentioned made us acquainted, inhabits the Bogan between Cambelego and Mount Hopeless. They are perhaps less subtle and dissimulating than the Myalls, and if possible more ignorant than they of our language and persons. Yet the Bungans came forth from their native bush to meet us with less hesitation, observing at the same time that downcast formality which is the surest indication of the natives' respect for the stranger, and ignorance of the manners of white men, especially when accompanied, as in this instance, with an openness of countenance and a frankness of manner far beyond the arts of dissimulation.*
(*Footnote. I have since been informed by an officer who had been some time in Canada that he noticed, when on shooting excursions with the Indians, that they observed a somewhat similar silence on meeting with strangers.)
Lower down the Bogan we saw so little of the inhabitants that I cannot characterise the tribes, although there appear to be two more, the haunts of one being eastward of New Year's range, those of the other to the north of the Pink hills. Both these tribes appeared to be of rather an inoffensive and friendly disposition than otherwise, although quite ignorant of our language. They were terrified at the sight of our cattle, and even still more afraid of the sheep.
Unlike the natives on the Darling these inhabitants of the banks of the Bogan subsist more on the opossum, kangaroo, and emu than on the fish of the river.
THEIR MODE OF FISHING.