Part 14 (1/2)

July 4--We travelled seven rees 15 minutes 11 seconds, over an entirely flat country, covered with a very open forest of box, of bloodwood, and of the stiff-leaved Melaleuca, with the arborescent Grevillea already ed fruit In the rew the Nonda, the Pandanus, and the apple-gum The shallow creek was surrounded by a scrub of various myrtaceous trees, particularly Melaleucas The creek afterwards divided into water-holes, fringed with Stravadiuonuhtly brackish; the first actual sign of the vicinity of the sea A young e; and a sheldrake was shot by Brown Native companions were very numerous, and were heard after sunset, all round our camp The sto chickweed, which grew round the water-holes

The smoke of the natives' fires was seen to the south and south-west

July 5--We travelled over full twenty h the distance froht line, did not exceed fourteen, in a south by west direction; the latitude of our new ca severalwith belts of grassy forest land, with bloodwood and Nonda, we entered upon a series of plains increasing in size, and extending to the ard as far as the eye could reach, and separated frorassed, but the grasses were stiff Tea-tree hollows extended along the outskirts of the plains In one of them,Salicornia for the first time, which led us to believe that the salt water was close at hand Having crossed the plains, we caroith low shrubby tea-trees, and a species of Hakea, which always grows in the vicinity of salt water The sands were encrusted with salt, and here and there streith heaps of Cytherea shells Beyond the sands,a dense green line ofa salt water creek, which we headed, and in which Brown speared the first salt water mullet We then came to a fine salt water river, whose banks were covered with an open well grassed forest; interrupted only by flat scrubby sandy creeks, into which the tide entered through narrow channels, and which are probably entirely inundated by the spring tides

Not finding any fresh water along the river I went up one of the creeks, and found fresh water-holes, not in its bed, but parallel to it, scarcely athe plains, the whole horizon appeared to be studded with smoke from the various fires of the natives; and e approached the river, we noticed enerally in greater nuer tribes near the sea coast, where the supply of food is always ht of the salt water of the gulf was hailed by all with feelings of indescribable pleasure, and by none ret at not having succeeded in bringing h to think the most difficult part of my journey We had now discovered a line of communication by land between the eastern coast of Australia, and the gulf of Carpentaria: we had travelled along never failing, and, for the greater part, running waters: and over an excellent country, available, alth of tireater portion of h the journey; and, in theirexpression, ”We shall never coton,” was too often overheard by me to be pleasant My readers will, therefore, readily understand why Brown's joyous exclamation of ”Salt Water!” was received by a loud hurrah froues, and privations we had endured, were, for the otten, almost as completely as if we had arrived at the end of the journey

July 6--remained in camp the whole of this day, to rest the poor anie Charley shot a duck (Malacorhynchus membranaceus); and he, Brown, and John Murphy, went to the salt water to angle My expectations, however, of catching fish in the salt water, and of drying them, were sadly disappointed The whole amount of their day's as, a suard-fish

The weather continued fine, the forenoon usually very hot, but the air was cooled in the afternoon by a south-west breeze; the nights were clear and rather cold

When I left Moreton Bay, I had taken a spare set of horse-shoes withthe Downs, but they soon lost their shoes; and, as our stages were short, and the ground soft, I did not think it necessary to shoe the the Burdekin, however, and the upper Lynd, they becae of good country to allow them to recover; I had been frequently inclined to throw the spare shoes away, but they had as often been retained, under the iulf, to barter with the natives for food, particularly for fish Finding, however, that the natives were hostile, and scarcely wishi+ng to have any farther intercourse with the the horse-shoes, and several other cumbersome articles behind; and they were consequently throith two spare gun barrels, into the water-hole at which ere encamped The natives will probably find them, when the holes dry up; and, if preserved, they will be a lasting testimonial of our visit

July 7--Charley told me that he had followed the river up to its termination I consequently kept a little more to the left, in order to head it, and travelled two or three h a fine bloodwood and Nonda forest, the verdant appearance of which was rew here in great perfection Two emus had just made their breakfast on some Nonda fruit e started the, succeeded in killing one of them

We soon came to a salt-water river, with a broad sandy bed, perfectly free of vegetation, although its banks were fringed with drooping tea-trees The tide being loere enabled to ford it Whilst crossing it, a flock of black-winged pelicans stood gravely looking at us The latitude of the ford, which o rees 30 minutes, which corresponds with that of the Staaten, rassed open forest extended along both sides of the river; and, at its left, large deep Nyoons were parallel to it South of the Staaten, we travelled over a forest country, siht be aptly distinguished by the name of Grevillea Forest; as Gr h a rather stunted stiff-leaved tea-tree was ht rises were covered with thickets of the Acacia of Expedition Range The last six or seven e were over an immense box-flat We passed many spots lately burnt by the natives, and saw the sood sized creek, on which grew the articulate podded Acacia, the Mangrove Myrtle (Stravadiu tea-tree As soon as we had pitched our tents, we cut up the hind quarters of the euard it by turns, whip in hand, from a host of square-tailed kites (Milvus isiurus)

John Murphy and Charley, whilst riding round the cahbourhood, came on one of their camps occupied chiefly by worass on fire as they went, to prevent the approach of the horseood supply of potatoes At dusk, when Charley brought in the horses, two of which we tethered near the cahost into our camp, and walked directly up to the fire John, who saw him first, called out, ”a Blackfellow! look there! a Blackfellow!” and every gun was ready But the stranger was unarmed, and evidently unconscious of his position; for, when he saw himself suddenly surrounded by the horses and ourselves, he nimbly climbed a tree to its very sue phantons for him to descend, but he not only rens and noise we un, but it had not the intended effect of inducing him to speak or stir At last I desired Charley to ascend the neighbouring tree, to show hiet at him if necessary This plan was more successful; for no sooner were Charley's intentions perceived, than our friend gave theneither deaf nor du out most lustily He pooh'd, he birrrred, he spat, and cooeed; in fact, he did everything to make the silent forest re-echo with the wild sounds of his alarhtened, and those which were loose ran away We werethe whole tribe to his assistance, and every one eagerly proffered his advice Charley wished to shoot him, ”or,” said he, ”you will all be killed; I do not care forkilled and buried” Others wished to re I was, of course, horrified at the idea of shooting a poor fellohose only cri mistaken our fire for that of his own tribe: so I went to our own fire, which was at a short distance, where he could see o away He then began to be a little ain, and threw sticks at myself, at ht yards, to allow him to escape, which we had not done before, because I feared hemost lamentable corrobories, and cried like a child; frequently exclai, ”Mareka!

Mareka!!” This word is probably identical with Marega; the naiven by the Malays to the natives of the north coast, which is also called by the's Intertropical Survey of Australia, vol I p 135] After continuing his lamentations for soradually ceased; and, in a few one: doubtless delighted at having escaped froi

July 8--Thisthe whole tribe, well armed, watched us from a distance; but they allowed us quietly to load our bullocks, and depart, without offering us the least annoyance Their companion will, no doubt, leave a dreadful account of the adventures of last night to his black posterity

We travelled about twelve rees 47 minutes; at first over an almost uninterrupted box-flat, full of round, which caused our horses and cattle to stumble at almost every step The dry melon-holes were covered with dead Paludinas, with shells of a large crab, and of the fresh water turtle At about seven miles, we passed a strip of Blackwood forest, with many Nonda trees; and crossed a se box-flat, intersected by shallow grassy depressions, tiround some open scrub, with scattered Bauhinias and Cochlospermuht rise, with Bauhinia trees, and near good water-holes The creek, like all the others we had passed, flowed to the ard

Near our camp we examined three holes, full six feet deep, and four feet in dia with each other at their bottom They were about three feet apart, and appeared to have been dug with sharp sticks

I have not the slightest idea for what purpose they were intended They wereto obtain roots; and it seemed unlikely for wells; for the water, even in this unusually dry season, was very abundant

The white ant-hills, which are built in rows, had, during this stage, a direction from north by west to south by east, and, as I have before mentioned a conjecture that the little builders would expose the narrowest side of their habitation to the weather side, the prevailing winds would be from the north

July 9--We travelled thirteen or fourteen rees 0a box-flat, and after that a succession of greater or smaller plains, separated by a very open Grevillea forest These plains ell grassed, or partly covered with a species of Euphorbia, which was eaten by our horses and cattle; and also with the long trailings of the native melon; the fruit of which tastes very tolerably, after the bitter skin has been removed; but when too ripe, the fruit is either insipid or nauseous The bustard seems to feed almost exclusively on them, for the stomach of one, which Brown shot, was full of theain u narrow leaves As we approached the creek, at which we afterwards encaed into dry water-holes, which were frequently shaded by the Acacia with articulate pods (Inga moniliformis) The two species of Terreen looking tree, which we found growing densely along the creek, had wood of a brown colour, which s it, the ashes produced a very strong lye, which I used in dressing the wounds of reat abundance on all the rivers and creeks round the gulf, within the reach of salt water; and when crossing Arnheih less frequently

Sandstone cropped out in the banks of the creek, and forht before, we experienced a very cold wind fro Jackass (Dacelo cervina, GOULD) of this part of the country, is of a different species from that of the eastern coast, is of a se; but the noise is by no antea: he is heard before sunrise, and immediately after sunset, like his representative of the eastern coast

The latter was observed as far as the upper Lynd, where the new one made his appearance

We crossed a bush fire, which had been lighted just before we came to the creek, but we did not see the incendiaries In theof the 10th July, however, they had discovered our tracks, and followed theht of the camp; but retired as soon as they saw us: and when theywith the bullocks, they ran away After half-an-hour's travelling towards the south-west, we came to the Van Dierees It was about seventy or eighty yards broad, with steep banks and a fine sandy bed, containing detached pools of water surrounded by Polygonuy My horse stuck in the reat difficulty that I extricated hia place, for the purpose of killing our last little steer The country was a fine open grassy forest land, in which the apple-guoons covered hite, blue, and pink Nyhbourhood

In the bed of the Van Diemensome well constructed huts of the natives; they were e, and thatched with grass and the bark of the drooping tea-tree

The place where we encamped had been frequently used by the natives for the sae heap of chaff, from which the natives appeared to have taken the seeds

This grass was, however, very different from the panicum, of the seeds of which the natives of the Gwyder River make a sort of bread; and which there forah (Melopsittacus undulatus, GOULD)