h rose to exactly 95 degrees of the centigrade
scale. We got through that night of misery as well as might have been
expected under the circumstances, and we succeeded in keeping the fire
alive although, while twigs were blown into red heat at one end, icicles
remained at the other, even within a few inches of the flame. In order to
maintain it through the night we divided, at eleven o'clock, the stock of
branches which had been gathered before dark into eight parcels, this
being the number of hours we were destined to sit shivering there; and as
each bundle was laid on the dying embers we had the pleasure at least of
knowing that it was an hour nearer daylight. I coiled myself round the
fire in all the usual attitudes of the blacks, but in vain; to get warm
was quite impossible, although I did once feel something like comfort
when one of the men gave me for a seat a flat stone on which the fire had
been blown for some hours. Partial cessations in the fall of sleet were
also cheering occasionally; but the appearance of stars two hours before
daylight promised to reward our enterprise and inspired me with hope.

VIEW FROM IT AT SUNRISE.

July 15.

At six o'clock the sky became clear, the clouds had indeed left the
mountain and, as soon as it was day, I mounted the frozen rock. In the
dawn however all lower objects were blended in one grey shade, like the
dead colouring of a picture. I could distinguish only a pool of water,
apparently near the foot of the mountain. This water I afterwards found
to be a lake eight miles distant and in my map I have named it Lake
Lonsdale, in honour of the Commandant then or soon after appointed at
Port Phillip. I hastily levelled my theodolite but the scene, although
sublime enough for the theme of a poet, was not at all suited to the more
commonplace objects of a surveyor. The sun rose amid red and stormy
clouds, and vast masses of a white vapour concealed from view both sea
and land save where a few isolated hills were dimly visible. Towards the
interior the horizon was clear and, during a short interval, I took what
angles I could obtain. To the westward the view of the mountain ranges
was truly grand. Southward or towards the sea I could at intervals
perceive plains clear of timber and that the country was level, a
circumstance of great importance to us; for I was apprehensive that
between these mountains and the coast it might be broken by mountain
gullies as it is in the settled c