hem from their peculiar
shape the Mammeloid hills, and the station on which I stood Mount
Greenock. In travelling through this Eden no road was necessary, nor any
ingenuity in conducting wheel-carriages wherever we chose. The beautiful
little terrestrial orchidaceous plants Caladenia dilatata and Diuris
aurea were already in full bloom; and we also found on the plains this
day a most curious little bush resembling a heath in foliage, but with
solitary polypetalous flowers resembling those of Sollya.* When we had
completed fourteen miles we encamped on the edge of an open plain and
near a small rivulet, the opposite bank consisting of grassy forest land.

(*Footnote. This has been ascertained to be a new species of the genus
Campylanthera of Hooker, or Pronaya of Baron Hugel, of which two species
were found by the latter botanist and the late Mr. Frazer at Swan River.
Campylanthera ericoides, Lindley manuscripts; erecta, fruticosa, glabra,
foliis oblongo-cuneatis mucronatis margine revolutis, floribus solitariis
terminalibus erectis, antheris subrotundis.)

ABORIGINAL IMITATIONS.

September 27.

I was surprised to hear the voice of a Scotchwoman in the camp this
morning. The peculiar accent and rapid utterance could not be mistaken as
I thought, and I called to inquire who the stranger was, when I
ascertained that it was only Tommy Came-last who was imitating a Scotch
female who, as I then learnt, was at Portland Bay and had been very kind
to Tommy. The imitation was ridiculously true through all the modulations
of that peculiar accent although, strange to say, without the
pronunciation of a single intelligible word. The talent of the aborigines
for imitation seems a peculiar trait in their character. I was informed
that The Widow could also amuse the men occasionally by enacting their
leader, taking angles, drawing from nature, etc.

While the party went forward over the open plains with Mr. Stapylton I
ascended a smooth round hill, distant about a mile to the southward of
our camp, from which I could with ease continue my survey by means of
hills on all sides, the highest of them being to the southward. I could
trace the rivulets flowing northward into one or two principal channels,
near several masses of mountain: these channels and ranges being probably
connected with those crossed by us on our route from the Murray. In these
bare hills and on the open grassy plains, old vesicular lava abounded;
small loose elon