eaks the stillness of night on the shores of Jervis' Bay, or on
the banks of the Macquarie; and during the ceremony imitate the several
birds and beasts with which they are acquainted. If these inland tribes
differ in anything from those on the coast, it is in the mode of
burying their dead, and, partially, in their language. Like all
savages, they consider their women as secondary objects, oblige them to
procure their own food, or throw to them over their shoulders the bones
they have already picked, with a nonchalance that is extremely amusing;
and, on the march, make them beasts of burden to carry their very
weapons. The population of the Morumbidgee, as far as we had descended
it at this time, did not exceed from ninety to a hundred souls. I am
persuaded that disease and accidents consign many of them to a
premature grave.

MIRAGE.

From this camp, one family only accompanied us. We journeyed due west
over plains of great extent. The soil upon them was soft and yielding,
in some places being a kind of light earth covered with rhagodiae, in
others a red tenacious clay, overrun by the misembrianthemum and
salsolae. Nothing could exceed the apparent barrenness of these plains,
or the cheerlessness of the landscape. We had left all high lands
behind us, and were now on an extensive plain, bounded in the distance
by low trees or by dark lines of cypresses. The lofty gum-trees on the
river followed its windings, and, as we opened the points, they
appeared, from the peculiar effect of a mirage, as bold promontories
jutting into the ocean, having literally the blue tint of distance.
This mirage floated in a light tremulous vapour on the ground, and not
only deceived us with regard to the extent of the plains, and the
appearance of objects, but hid the trees, in fact, from our view
altogether; so that, in moving, as we imagined, upon the very point or
angle of the river, we found as we neared it, that the trees stretched
much further into the plain, and were obliged to alter our course to
round them. The heated state of the atmosphere, and the sandy nature of
the country could alone have caused a mirage so striking in its
effects, as this,--exceeding considerably similar appearances noticed
during the first expedition. The travelling was so heavy, that I was
obliged to make a short day's journey, and when we struck the river for
the purpose of halting, it had fallen off very much in appearance, and
was evidently much contr