e, but Mr. Browne good-naturedly
walked with him up the creek, and at less than a mile came up on a long
and beautiful pond He informed me that it was serpentine in shape and
more than eighty yards long, but as there was no grass in its
neighbourhood I did not move to it. It was evident that Topar had
intended leading us past this water, and it was owing to his anxiety to
see the natives that we had now discovered it.

On the following morning I determined to take the direction of our
movements on myself, and after we had breakfasted at the long water-hole,
struck across the plains, and took up a course of 142 degrees to the west
of south for a round hill which I proposed ascending. Topar seeing us
determined, got into a state of alarm almost bordering on frenzy; he kept
shouting out "kerno, kerno," "rocks, rocks," and insisted that we should
all be killed. This however had no effect on us, and we continued to move
towards a spur, the ascent of which appeared to be less difficult than
any other point of the hills. We reached its base at 10 a.m., and had
little trouble in taking the cart up. On gaining the top of the first
rise, we descended into and crossed a valley, and ascending the opposite
side found ourselves on the summit of the range, the surface being much
less broken than might have been anticipated, insomuch that we had every
hope that our progress amongst the hills would be comparatively easy; but
in pushing for the one I wished to ascend, our advance was checked by a
deep ravine, and I was obliged to turn towards another hill of nearly
equal height on our left. We descended without much difficulty into a
contiguous valley, but the ascent on the opposite side was too rough for
the cart. We had pressed up it along a rocky watercourse, in which I was
obliged to leave Morgan and Topar. Mr. Browne, myself, and Flood, with
our horses reached the top of the hill at half-past twelve. Although the
position commanded a considerable portion of the horizon there was
nothing cheering in the view. Everything below us was dark and dreary,
nor was there any indication of a creek to take us on to the north-west.
We could see no gum-trees in that direction, nor indeed could we at an
elevation of 1600 feet above the plains distinctly make out the covering
of the ground below. It appeared to be an elevated table land surrounded
by hills, some of which were evidently higher than that on which we
stood.

The descent to the westw