With nothing but nature around him; his few wants supplied
almost miraculously; living on from day to day, just as he falls in with
water; his existence is felt to be in the hands of Providence alone; and
this feeling pervades even the minds of the least susceptible, in
journeys like these. Those splendid plains where, without a horse, man
seems a helpless animal, are avoided, and are said to be shunned and
disliked by the aboriginal man of the woods. Even their lonely
inhabitant, the emu, seems to need both wings and feet, that he may
venture across them. We travelled nearly west over plains; then through a
brigalow scrub, two miles in breadth; emerging from which, on a perfectly
level plain of very rich soil, we turned rather to the southward of west,
to where the distant line of river-trees seemed most accessible. Bushes
of ACACIA PENDULA skirted this plain; and, passing through them, we
crossed a track of nearly half a mile wide of soft sand, evidently a
concomitant feature of the river. We next traversed a belt of firm blue
clay, on which a salsolaceous bush appeared to be the chief vegetation;
and, between it and the river, was another belt of sand a mile broad, on
which grew a scrub of rosewood acacia. The river there ran in four
separate channels, amongst various trees; brigalow and yarra being both
amongst them. I crossed these channels, and continued westward that I
might ascend a hill on the downs beyond. From that eminence, no hill was
visible on any part of the horizon, which everywhere presented only downs
and woods. Far in the S.W. a hollow admitted of a very distant view,
which terminated in downs beyond a woody valley. The course of our river
appeared to be N.W., as seen by Yuranigh, from a tree we found here. In
that direction I therefore proceeded; recrossing the river, where, in a
general breadth of about 400 yards, it formed five channels. The grass
was more verdant here, and the ponds in these small separate channels
seemed likely to contain water. We continued N. W. across fine clear
downs, where we found the heat so intense, (Centigrade thermometer, 37 deg.,
or 99 deg. of Fahrenheit,) that I halted two hours under the shade of a small
clump of trees. When we continued our ride in the afternoon, three emus
that had been feeding on the downs came inquisitively forward; curiosity,
apparently inspiring them with more courage than even the human
inhabitants. Unfortunately for these birds, our bacon had