d for several miles
through a pretty open broad-leaved tea-tree forest, formed by small trees
from twenty to thirty feet high. This changed, however, into dense scrub,
which we could only avoid by keeping more to the westward, in which
direction the tea-tree forest seemed to extend to a great distance. Here
we passed several tea-tree swamps, dry at this time, level, like a table,
and covered with small trees, and surrounded by a belt of fine box-trees
and drooping water-gum trees. In order to come to a watercourse, I again
crossed the thick scrub which covered the undulations of iron-stone to
the northward, and came to a fine rocky creek, which Brown recognised as
one of those he had seen, but which contained only salt water lower down.
We consequently continued our journey to the north-west, through tea-tree
forest, and over some very large tea-tree swamps, and came at last to a
creek and to a small river, along which we travelled until darkness
compelled us to encamp. It had fine water-holes, and was densely shaded
with drooping tea-trees; but the holes were dry, with some few exceptions
of small wells of the natives. The latitude of our camp was 17 degrees 25
minutes.

We had seen a great number of pigeons and white cockatoos, and we were
sure that a greater supply of water was near, as many patches of burnt
grass showed that the natives had been here very lately. Next morning,
the 26th, when Charley returned with the horses, he told us that we had
passed a fine lagoon, not a mile and a half off, at the left bank of the
river, which the night had prevented us from seeing, and which the horses
had found when returning on their tracks. We moved our camp to this
lagoon, which was covered with Villarsia leaves, and contained a reddish
water coloured by very minute floating bodies of that colour. The natives
had surrounded it with dry sticks, leaving an opening on one side, for
the purpose of taking emus, as before described. These birds were very
numerous, and lived exclusively on the fruit of the little Severn tree,
which was excessively bitter and imparted its quality to the meat;
Charley and Brown, assisted by the dog, killed one of them. A cockatoo
was shot, which in form and colours resembled the large white cockatoo,
but was rather smaller, and the feathers of the breast were tipped with
red. We saw the bones of a Jew fish, and a broken shell of Cymbium, in an
old camp of the natives near the lagoon.

The apple-gu