ppearance, 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 considerable distance from us; and directly in the line on which we were
moving. The nature of the ground so completely favoured our approach, that
they did not become aware of it until we were within a few yards of them,
and had ascended a little ridge, which, as we afterwards discovered, ended
in an abrupt precipice upon the river, not more than thirty yards t