er when it had stood at a
much higher level.

DEAD SAPLINGS OF TEN YEARS GROWTH IN THE PONDS.

A concentric border of grass of uniform breadth grew on the slope above
the rushes, and one of fragrant herbs below the line of rushes, all being
at nearly equal distances; while a single row of bare poles measuring
from three to five inches in diameter stood where a row of saplings had
grown in what had, at one time, been the very centre of the stream. These
poles were the remains of yarra trees eight or ten years old, and marked
the extent doubtless of a long period of drought which had continued
until some high flood killed them.

DISCOVERY OF MOUNT HOPE.

The grass was excellent over the whole of the plains on both sides and,
from a tree near the camp, Burnett descried a goodly hill bearing 36 1/2
degrees East of South and distant, as afterwards ascertained, twenty-two
miles.

Near our camp we found some recent fireplaces of the natives, from which
they must have hastily escaped on our approach for, in the branches of a
tree, they had left their net bags containing the stalks of a vegetable
that had apparently undergone some culinary process, which gave them the
appearance of having been half boiled. Vegetables are thus cooked, I was
told, by placing the root or plant between layers of hot embers until it
is heated and softened. The stalks found in the bag resembled those of
the potato, and they could only be chewed, such food being neither
nutritious nor palatable for it tasted only of smoke.* A very large
ash-hill, raised no doubt by repeated use in such simple culinary
operations, and probably during the course of a great many years, was
close to our camp. On its ample surface were just visible the vestiges of
a very ancient grave, once encompassed by exactly the same kind of ridges
that I had observed around the inhabited tomb near the junction of the
Lachlan and Murrumbidgee. The natives were at length seen about two miles
off on the skirts of the wood; and although I sent forward the overseer
and Piper, each carrying a large green bough, they all ran away, leaving
behind them their spears and skin cloaks.

(*Footnote. July 17 1838. This plant has at length flowered in the
Horticultural Gardens at Chiswick and proves to be a new species of
Pieris of which Dr. Lindley has favoured me with the following
description: P. barbarorum; sparse hispida, foliis ciliatis supra nitidis
scabriusculis radicalibus spathulato-