side of which the natives had opened, probably in the
expectation of finding some treasure deposited in it. This pile they
concluded to be the one erected by Mr. Bass, to mark the end of his
journey. That gentleman attempted some time ago to pass the Mountains,
and to penetrate into the interior, but having got thus far, he gave up
the undertaking as impracticable, reporting, on his return, that it was
impossible to find a passage even for a person on foot. Here, therefore,
the party had the satisfaction of believing that they had penetrated as
far as any European had been before them.

[This, however, proved to be Caley's Cairn.]

_May 21st._--Their progress the next day was nearly four miles. They
encamped in the middle of the day at the head of a well-watered swamp,
about five acres in extent; pursuing, as before, their operations in the
afternoon. In the beginning of the night the dogs ran off and barked
violently. At the same time something was distinctly heard to run
through the brushwood, which they supposed to be one of the horses got
loose; but they had reason to believe afterwards that they had been in
great danger--that the natives had followed their tracks, and advanced
on them in the night, intending to have speared them by the light of
their fire, but that the dogs drove them off.

On the top of this ridge they found about two acres of land clear of
trees, covered with loose stones and short coarse grass, such as grows
on some of the commons of England. Over this heath they proceeded about
a mile and a half, and encamped by the side of a fine stream of water,
with just wood enough on the banks to serve for firewood. From the
summit they had a fine view of all the settlements and country
eastwards, and of a great extent of country to the westward and
south-west. But their progress in both the latter directions was stopped
by an impassable barrier of rock, which appeared to divide the interior
from the coast as with a stone wall, rising perpendicularly out of the
side of the mountain. In the afternoon they left their little camp in
the charge of three of the men, and made an attempt to descend the
precipice by following some of the streams of water, or by getting down
at some of the projecting points where the rocks had fallen in; but they
were baffled in every instance. In some places the perpendicular height
of the rocks above the earth below could not be less than four hundred
feet.

On the 28th they