r. We passed several parts of
the main channel that were perfectly dry, and were altogether at a loss
to account for the current we undoubtedly had observed in the river
when we first came upon it. At midday D'Urban's Group bore S. 65 E.
distant about 32 miles. We made a little westing in the afternoon. The
river continued to maintain its character and appearance, its lofty
banks, and its long still reaches: while, however, the blue-gum trees
upon its banks were of magnificent size, the soil had but little
vegetation upon it, although an alluvial deposit.

We passed over vast spaces covered with the polygonum junceum, that
bore all the appearance of the flooded tracks in the neighbourhood of
the marshes, and on which the travelling was equally distressing to the
animals. Indeed, it had been sufficiently evident to us that the waters
of this river were not always confined to its channel, capacious as it
was, but that they inundated a belt of barren land, that varied in
width from a quarter of a mile to a mile, when they were checked by an
outer embankment that prevented them from spreading generally over the
country, and upon the neighbouring plains. At our halting place, the
cattle drank sparingly of the water, but it acted as a violent
purgative both on them and the men who partook of it.

NATIVE VILLAGE.

On the 5th, the river led us to the southward and westward. Early in
the day, we passed a group of seventy huts, capable of holding from
twelve to fifteen men each. They appeared to be permanent habitations,
and all of them fronted the same point of the compass. In searching
amongst them we observed two beautifully made nets, of about ninety
yards in length. The one had much larger meshes than the other, and
was, most probably, intended to take kangaroos; but the other was
evidently a fishing net.

In one hut, the floor of which was swept with particular care, a number
of white balls, as of pulverised shells or lime, had been
deposited--the use of which we could not divine. A trench was formed
round the hut to prevent the rain from running under it, and the whole
was arranged with more than ordinary attention.

TERROR OF THE NATIVES.

We had not proceeded very far when we came suddenly upon the tribe to
which this village, as it might be called, belonged.

In breaking through some brush to an open space that was bounded on one
side by the river, we observed three or four natives, seated on a bank
at a consid