curves in which it grew, as if closing on
the lake, seemed to record its progressive diminution. The breadth of
this heathy-looking flat between the water and the crescent of low hills
was nearly half a mile. A small rill of fresh water oozed into the lake
from the sides of Mount Arapiles. The bed of this watercourse was soft
and boggy near the lake, so that I could cross only by going up its
channel much nearer to the hill and at a point where some rocks protruded
and prevented our horses from sinking.

(*Footnote. For Professor Faraday's analysis of these waters see below.)

(**Footnote. This was a truncatella, a saltwater shell of which there are
several species on the English and French coasts. The one found here has
been named by Mr. J. De Carl Sowerby T. filosa.)

Mr. Stapylton, in his search for the Wimmera, rode about six miles to the
northward without reaching the river, although he saw the valley through
which he thought it flowed; and where the river seemed likely to resume a
course to the southward of west. Upon the whole I think that the estuary
of the Wimmera will most probably be found either between Cape Bernouilli
and Cape Jaffa, or at some of the sandy inlets laid down by Captain
Flinders to the northward of the first of these capes. The country which
Mr. Stapylton crossed assumed the barren character of the lower parts of
the Murray. He actually passed through a low scrub of the Eucalyptus
dumosa; but I have no doubt that the country on the immediate banks of
the Wimmera continues good, whatever its course may be, even to the
sea-coast.

RELINQUISH THE PURSUIT OF THE WIMMERA.

At all events I here abandoned the pursuit of that river and determined
to turn towards the south-west that we might ascertain what streams fell
in that direction from the Grampians; and also the nature of the country
between these mountains and the shores of the Southern Ocean.

THE PARTY TRAVELS TO THE SOUTH-WEST.

July 25.

Proceeding accordingly about south-west, we crossed at less than a mile
from our camp the dry bed of a circular lake. The ground on the eastern
shore was full of wombat holes which had been made in a stratum of
compact tuff about a foot in thickness. The tuff was irregularly
cavernous and it was loose, calcareous, or friable in the lower part
where the wombats had made their burrows. On the opposite margin of this
dry lake the surface was covered with concretions of indurated marl; and
the burrows