light carts, and we at length reached the first
running stream at a short distance below where I had previously crossed
it. The bottom was boggy and the water flowed in two channels, the ground
between them being very soft. The whole party crossed it, with the
exception of two carts which did not arrive, and we encamped on the bank
beyond after a journey of about eight miles. Near this stream we found a
pretty new species of Dillwynia, with plain yellow flowers, clustered on
a long stalk at the end of the branches, and with curiously hairy
heath-like leaves. It resembles D. peduncularis but proved, on
examination, to be distinct.*

(*Footnote. D. hispida, Lindley manuscripts; ramulis hispidulis, foliis
linearibus patulis verrucosis obtusis hispidulis, corymbis longe
pedunculatis terminalibus laxis paucifloris, pedunculo glaberrimo,
pedicellis calycibusque pubescentibus.)

At this spot we found a very small bower of twigs, only large enough to
contain a child: the floor was hollowed out and filled with dry leaves
and feathers; and the ground around had been cut smooth, several boughs
having been also bent over it so as to be fixed in the ground at both
ends. The whole seemed connected with some mystic ceremony of the
aborigines, but which the male natives who were with us could not
explain. The gins however on being questioned said it was usual to
prepare such a bower for the reception of a new-born child. Kangaroos
were more numerous in this part of the country than in any other that we
had traversed. I counted twenty-three in one flock which passed before me
as I stood silently by a tree. Two of the men counted fifty-seven in
another flock, and it was not unusual for them to approach our camp as if
from curiosity, on which occasions two or three were occasionally caught
by our dogs.

September 8.

The remainder of the heavy carts not having come up, I left the two with
us to await their arrival that the men might assist the drivers with
their teams in crossing this stream. On proceeding then with the light
carts only I crossed several soft bad places, and one or two fine small
rivulets, encamping at last where we again fell in with my horse's track,
on an open space about eight miles from Mount Napier. During the day's
journey we traversed some fine open forest hills near the banks of
rivulets. We generally found the south-eastern slope of such heights very
indistinct, and the ground soft, boggy and covered with ba