instructed to take
charge of an inland exploring party to search for pastoral country, and
to examine the interior for indications of gold.

He started from the head of the Swan River on a north-easterly course,
and on the 16th of July reached a lake, rumours of whose existence had
been spread by the blacks, who had called it Cowcowing. The colonists had
hoped that it would prove to be a lake of fresh water in the Gascoyne
valley, but Cowcowing in reality was a salt marsh, no great distance from
the starting-point of Austin's expedition.

The lake was dry and its bed covered with salt incrustations, showing
that its waters are undoubtedly saline. Thence Austin made directly
north, and passing through repellant country, such as always fell to the
lot of the early western explorers in their initial efforts, he directed
his course to a distant range of table-topped hills. Here he found both
grass and water, and named the highest elevation Mount Kenneth, after
Kenneth Brown, a member of his party. Thence he kept a north-east course,
traversing stony plains intersected by the dry beds of sandy
watercourses. Here the party met with dire misfortune. The horses ate
from a patch of poisonous box plant, and nearly all of them were
disabled. A few escaped, but the greater number never recovered from the
effects of the poison, and fourteen died. Pushing on in the hope of
finding a safe place in which to recruit, Austin found himself so
crippled in his means of transit that he had to abandon all but his most
necessary stores.

He now made for Shark's Bay, whither a vessel was to be sent to render
him assistance or take the party home if required. The course to Shark's
Bay led them over country that did not tempt them to linger on the way.
On the 21st of September a sad accident occurred. They were then camped
at a spring near a cave in the face of a cliff, in which there were some
curious native rock-paintings. While resting here, a young man named
Charles Farmer accidentally shot himself in the arm, and in spite of the
most careful attention the poor fellow died of lockjaw in the most
terrible agony. He was buried at the cave-spring camp, and the highest
hill in the neighbourhood was christened Mount Farmer. His death and
burial reminds one of Sturt's friend Poole, who rests in the east of the
continent under the shadow of Mount Poole. Thus two lonely graves in the
Australian wilderness are guarded by mountains whose names perpet