TRAP AND TUFF.
At two places the banks are so low that in high floods the water must flow over them to the westward and supply, as I supposed, Campbell's lake, called Goorongully, and that to the north-east of Regent's lake. Upon the whole it appeared that the trap which originally elevated the western shore had either partially subsided, or that it was connected with a crater or cavity of which the only vestige is this lake. The calcareous conglomerate was unlike any rock I had seen elsewhere, consisting in part of a tuff resembling the matrix of the fossil bones found in limestone fissures. It is also worthy of notice that it appears in some low undulations which extend from the lake to the river, and that the channel conveying the waters to the lake lies in a hollow between them.
NATIVES THERE.
On first approaching the lake we saw the natives in the midst of the water, gathering the mussels (unio). I sent Piper forward to tell them who we were, and thus, if possible, prevent any alarm at our appearance. It began to rain heavily as we rode round; and although detached parties of gins on the south shore had taken fright, left their huts and run to the main camp, I was glad to find, when we rode up, that they remained quietly there, under cover from the heavy rain. These huts or gunyas consisted of a few green boughs which had just been put up for shelter from the rain then falling. The tribe consisted of about a hundred.
WOMEN.
The females and children were in huts at some distance from those of the men. A great number sat huddled together and cowered down under each gunya, their skinny limbs being so folded before their bodies that the head rested upon the knees. Among the faces were some which, being hideously painted white (the usual badge of mourning) grinned horribly; and the whole was so characteristic a specimen of life among the aborigines that the heavy rain did not prevent me from making a sketch. While I was thus employed the natives very hospitably made a fire in a vacant gunya, evidently for the purpose of warming poor Barney, our guide, who seemed miserably cold, having no covering except a jacket, thoroughly wet.
MEN.
The men were in general strong, healthy, and muscular, and among them was one who measured six feet four inches, as we afterwards ascertained at our camp. My chief object in visiting the lake was to cultivate a good understanding with these natives in the hopes that one of them might be induced to accompany me down the Lachlan. The facility with which Piper, then at a distance of 200 miles from his native place, Bathurst, conversed with these people showed that their dialects are not so varied as is commonly believed; and I had little doubt that he would be understood, even on the banks of the Darling.
THEIR ACCOUNT OF THE COUNTRY LOWER DOWN. OOLAWAMBILOA.
He ascertained from one of these natives of Regent's lake that after eight of our daily journeys, according to his comprehension, the bed of the Lachlan would contain no water, and that we must go to the right across "the middle," as Piper understood, reaching in four days more a lagoon called Burrabidgin or Burrabadimba: that there I must leave the carts and go with the native on horseback; and that in two days' travelling at the rate we could then proceed, we should reach Oolawambiloa, a very great water. They also said that water could be found in the bush at the end of each of those four days' journey by one of their tribe who would go with us and who had twice been at the great water. All this news made me impatient to go on; but we had to remain a day or two for the light cart. It rained heavily during the whole afternoon; nevertheless a body of these natives accompanied us back, keeping pace with our horses.