They were much surprised by the
different appearance of Charley's black skin and my own. Phillips wished
to exchange his jacket for one of their opossum cloaks, so I desired him
to put it on the ground, and then taking the cloak and placing it near
the jacket, I pointed to Phillips, and, taking both articles up, handed
the cloak to Phillips and the jacket to our old friend, who perfectly
understood my meaning. After some time he expressed a wish to have the
cloak back, and to keep the jacket, with which we had dressed him; but I
gave him to understand that he might have his cloak, provided he returned
the jacket; which arrangement satisfied him. A basket (dilli), which I
examined, was made of a species of grass which, according to Charley, is
found only on the sea coast.

We saw a Tabiroo (Mycteria) and a rifle bird. The morning was cloudy, but
very hot. Numerous heavy cumuli formed during the afternoon.

March 27.--We travelled to lat. 20 degrees 47 minutes 34 seconds. The
country along the river is undulating and hilly, and openly timbered. The
rock is of sandstone, and the ground is covered with quartz pebbles. In
lat. about 20 degrees 49 minutes, the Suttor is joined by a river as
large as itself, coming from the S.W. by W., and which changes the course
of the Suttor to the N.E. Just before the junction, the large bed of the
Suttor contracts into one deep channel, filled in its whole extent by a
fine sheet of water, on which Charley shot a pelican. I mention this
singular contraction, because a similar peculiarity was observed to occur
at almost every junction of considerable channels, as that of the Suttor
and Burdekin, and of the Lynd and the Mitchell. I named the river, which
here joins the Suttor, after Mr. Cape, the obliging commander of the
Shamrock steamer. The bed of the united rivers is very broad, with
several channels separated by high sandy bergues. The country back from
the river is formed by flats alternating with undulations, and is lightly
timbered with silver-leaved Ironbark, rusty gum, Moreton Bay ash, and
water box. The trees are generally stunted, and unfit for building; but
the drooping tea trees and the flooded-gum will supply sufficient timber
for such a purpose.

At our camp, at the bed of the river, granite crops out, and the sands
sparkle with leaflets of gold-coloured mica. The morning was clear and
hot; the afternoon cloudy; a thunder-storm to the north-east. We have
observed nothing of