search proceeds. Thus, in the limestone caves
at Wellington Valley, the remains of fossils and exuviae, show that
their depths were penetrated by the same searching element that poured
into the caverns of Kirkdale and other places. They are as gleams of
sunshine falling upon the pages of that sublime and splendid volume, in
which the history of the deluge is alone to be found; as if the
Almighty intended that His word should stand single and unsupported
before mankind: and when we consider that such corroborative
testimonies of his wrath, as those I have noticed, were in all
probability wholly unknown to those who wrote that sacred book, the
discovery of the remains of a past world, must strike those under whose
knowledge it may fall with the truth of that awful event, which
language has vainly endeavoured to describe and painters to represent.

CHAPTER VIII.

Environs of the lake Alexandrina--Appointment of Capt. Barker to make a
further survey of the coast near Encounter Bay--Narrative of his
proceedings--Mount Lofty, Mount Barker, and beautiful country
adjacent--Australian salmon--Survey of the coast--Outlet of lake to the
sea--Circumstances that led to the slaughter of Capt. Barker by the
natives--His character--Features of this part of the country and
capabilities of its coasts--Its adaptation for colonization--Suggestions
for the furtherance of future Expeditions.

ENVIRONS OF THE LAKE ALEXANDRINA.

The foregoing narrative will have given the reader some idea of the
state in which the last expedition reached the bottom of that extensive
and magnificent basin which receives the waters of the Murray. The men
were, indeed, so exhausted, in strength, and their provisions so much
reduced by the time they gained the coast, that I doubted much, whether
either would hold out to such place as we might hope for relief. Yet,
reduced as the whole of us were from previous exertion, beset as our
homeward path was by difficulty and danger, and involved as our
eventual safety was in obscurity and doubt, I could not but deplore the
necessity that obliged me to re-cross the Lake Alexandrina (as I had
named it in honour of the heir apparent to the British crown), and to
relinquish the examination of its western shores. We were borne over
its ruffled and agitated surface with such rapidity, that I had
scarcely time to view it as we passed; but, cursory as my glance was, I
could not but think I was leaving behind me the fu