rs shipped, making a most hideous
noise, and with the most savage gestures. Knowing the fire could not
reach us, as there was nothing to burn on our side the gully, we drew up
towards them with our firearms prepared. They approached near enough to
throw three spears into our camp, one of which went quite through one of
our tents. No one was hurt, but a few of our party fired at them; we
could not tell whether any were wounded, as they disappeared almost
immediately. We kept three on watch this night for fear of the natives.

September 17 to 21.

Leaving the river, we turned north-west, and had occasionally fair
travelling over stiff soil, intersected by many creeks, most of them dry,
but were everywhere able to find water at intervals of a few miles. We
passed over some ironstone ridges, and rocky hills, covered with
Callitris, Cochlospermum, and Sterculias. On the stiff soil the trees
were ironbark, box, apple-gum, and some large acacias, with long
lanceolate phyllodia, and large spikes of golden-coloured flowers. The
grass here in the valleys between the hills had been burned, and was
grown up again about eight or ten inches high.

September 22.

We crossed a creek running eastward, overhung by Melaleucas and
arborescent callistemons, with plenty of grass on both sides; the soil
appeared to become more sandy than that over which we had hitherto
passed.

September 23.

We proceeded in our course, travelling over sandy ridges covered with
Eugenia, Exocarpus, and a very pretty Eucalyptus, with rose-coloured
flowers and obcordate leaves, and yellow soft bark, also a dwarfish tree
with dark green leaves, and axillary racemes of round monospermons, fruit
of a purple colour, with a thin rind of a bitter flavour; also a great
many trees of moderate size, from fifteen to twenty feet high, of rather
pendulous habit, oval lanceolate exstipulate leaves, loaded with an
oblong yellow fruit, having a rough stone inside; the part covering the
stone has, when ripe, a mealy appearance, and very good flavour. I
considered from its appearance it was the fruit which Leichhardt called
the nonda, which we always afterwards called it; we all ate plentifully
of it.

The weather for the last few days had been very hot, the thermometer
ranging in the shade from 95 to 100 degrees at noon; still there was
generally a breeze in the morning from the eastward, and in the evening
from the west. We camped by the same creek as on the previous