ave been lost. I never experienced such a day of torment; and
only when the sun set, did these little creatures cease from their
attacks.

SUDDENLY RELIEVED.

It will be supposed that we did not stay to subject ourselves to
another trial; indeed it was with some degree of horror that the men
saw the first light of morning streak the horizon. They got up
immediately, and we moved down the creek, on a northerly course,
without breakfasting as usual. We found that dense brushes of casuarina
lined the creek on both sides, beyond which, to our left, there was
open rising ground, on which eucalypti, cypresses, and the acacia
longifolia, prevailed; whilst to the east, plains seemed to predominate.

Although we had left the immediate spot at which the kangaroo flies
(cabarus) seemed to be collected, I did not expect that we should have
got rid of them so completely as we did. None of them were seen during
the day; a proof that they were entirely local. They were about half
the size of a common house fly, had flat brown bodies, and their bite,
although sharp and piercing, left no irritation after it.

About noon we stopped at the creek side to take some refreshment. The
country bore an improved appearance around us, and the cattle found
abundance of pasture. It was evident that the creek had been numerously
frequented by the natives, although no recent traces of them could be
found. It had a bed of coarse red granite, of the fragments of which
the natives had constructed a weir for the purpose of taking fish. The
appearance of this rock in so isolated a situation, is worthy of the
consideration of geologists.

DESOLATION OF THE COUNTRY.

The promise of improvement I have noticed, gradually disappeared as we
proceeded on our day's journey, and we at length found ourselves once
more among brushes, and on the edge of plains, over which the rhagodia
prevailed. Nothing could exceed in dreariness the appearance of the
tracks through which we journeyed, on this and the two following days.
The creek on which we depended for a supply of water, gave such
alarming indications of a total failure, that I at one time, had
serious thoughts of abandoning my pursuit of it. We passed hollow after
hollow that had successively dried up, although originally of
considerable depth; and, when we at length found water, it was doubtful
how far we could make use of it. Sometimes in boiling it left a
sediment nearly equal to half its body; at other