ng hills, devoid of timber, but having occasionally small patches
of very rich land in the valleys and upon some of the slopes. This
continued to a salt-water river, broad, and apparently deep near the sea.
As I was doubtful whether it would have a bar-mouth to seawards, I
thought it more prudent to trace it upwards, for the purpose of crossing.
At no very great distance it contracted sufficiently to enable me to get
over to the other side. But in doing so the ground proved soft and boggy,
and I nearly lost one of the horses. Four miles beyond this river we came
to another channel of salt water, but not so large as the last. In
valleys sloping down to this watercourse we met, for the first time,
clumps of a tree called by the residents of King George's Sound the
cabbage-tree, and not far from which were native wells of fresh water;
there were also several patches of rich land bordering upon the
watercourse.

Travelling for two miles further, we came to a very pretty fresh-water
lake, of moderate size, and surrounded by clumps of tea-tree. It was the
first permanent fresh water we had found on the surface since we
commenced our journey from Fowler's Bay--a distance of nearly seven
hundred miles. I would gladly have encamped here for the night, but the
country surrounding the lake was sandy and barren, and destitute of
grass. We had only made good a distance of eleven miles from our last
camp, and I felt anxious to get on to Lucky Bay as quickly as I could, in
order that I might again give our horses a rest for a few days, which
they now began to require. From Captain Flinders' account of Lucky Bay I
knew we should find fresh water and wood in abundance. I hoped there
would also be grass, and in this case I had made up my mind to remain a
week or ten days, during which I intended to have killed the foal we had
with us, now about nine months old, could we procure food in no other
way. After leaving Lucky Bay, as we should only be about three hundred
miles from the Sound, and our horses would be in comparatively fresh
condition, I anticipated we should be able to progress more rapidly.
Indeed I fully expected it would be absolutely necessary for us to do so,
through a region which, from Flinders' description as seen from sea, and
from his having named three different hills in it Mount Barrens, we
should find neither very practicable nor fertile.

Six miles beyond the fresh-water lake we came to another salt-water
stream, a