e.

August 20, 21, and 22.

During the whole of these three days we travelled over undulating open
land, wooded pretty thickly with stringy-bark, box, and apple-gum,
interspersed with occasional sandy flats, producing a broad-leafed
Melaleuca, and a pretty species of Grevillea, with pinnatifid, silvery
leaves. Neither the Melaleuca nor the Grevillea grew more than twenty
feet high. On the flats we found a great number of ant-hills, remarkable
for their height and size; they were of various forms, but chiefly
conical, some of them rose ten feet high. From the appearance of the
ant-hills I should take the sub-soil to be of a reddish clay.

August 23.

We camped by the side of a creek running to the westward, with rather a
broad bed, and steep banks of strong clay. There was no water in the
creeks except in holes.

A tribe of natives, from eighteen to twenty in number, were seen coming
down the creek, each carrying a large bundle of spears. Three of our
party left the camp and went towards them, carrying in their hands green
boughs, and making signs to the blacks to lay down their spears and come
to us. After making signals to them for some minutes, three or four of
them laid down their spears and approached us. I went back to the camp
and fetched a few fish-hooks, and a tin plate marked with Mr. Kennedy's
initials; having presented them with these they went away and appeared
quite friendly. Shortly after we had camped, Goddard and Jackey went out
for the purpose of shooting wallabies; they parted company at the base of
a hill, intending to go round and meet on the other side, but missing
each other, Jackey returned to the camp without his companion. To our
great alarm Goddard did not return all night, although we kept up a good
fire as a beacon to show him where we were camped, and fired a pistol
every five minutes during the night.

August 24.

Three of our party, accompanied by Jackey, rode to the spot where the
latter had left Goddard on the previous day, intending, if possible, to
track him, and succeeded in doing so for some distance to the eastward,
but then coming to some stony ground, they lost the track.

They returned in about six hours, hoping to find him at the camp, but
were disappointed. We now began to fear that our companion was lost, and
poor Jackey displayed great uneasiness, fearing that he might be blamed
for leaving him, and repeatedly saying that he did not wish Goddard to
leave the camp at