e of toilsome, cheerless hardship while a companion of their
wanderings, and when unfitted for this by old age, he would, according to
the custom of the country, have been left to die, unfriended and alone,
upon the spot where his last weary efforts failed. The delay occasioned
by this extraordinary and unlooked-for event, made it late by the time
all the boats were fairly on their way down the river. The wind was light
from the north-east, and the temperature about 90 degrees, at 9 o'clock.

NEW KANGAROO.

I pushed on to gain a station at the commencement of the hills on the
eastern side of Whirlwind Plains, and also, if possible, to shoot a
kangaroo to send to the ship:* I was so fortunate as to secure two; one
of a new species, very small, and of a dark brown colour, with coarse
hair, I found in rocky land, which it appears solely to inhabit, as it
was also found near the ship. As, however, like the generality of
kangaroos, this species only move of their own accord in the night time,
they are rarely seen, and but one good specimen was obtained by
Lieutenant Emery, who brought it to England, and submitted it to Mr.
Gould, who has described it as Petrogale concinna. It is now in the
British Museum.

(*Footnote. I had now become quite an adept in this kind of sport. My
plan was to direct a man to walk along near the river, where they are
generally found, whilst I kept considerably above him and a little in
advance, so that all those that were started running up from the bank in
the curved direction, habitual with all kangaroos, passed within shot.)

The height we visited was of coarse sandstone formation, and attained an
elevation of 150 feet. As I was left to examine some parts of the river
which had been passed in the night, I had a further opportunity of
determining the value, and estimating the fertility of Whirlwind Plains.
My examination only confirmed my previous conjectures in favour of the
capabilities of the soil. From what I had seen at Port Essington, as
ground considered favourable for the growth of cotton, there can be no
doubt that on these plains it would thrive much better; but the soil on
the Victoria is of too fertile a character to bear any comparison with
that of Cobourg Peninsula.

SILK COTTON-TREE.

At Reach Hopeless, and at other points of the important stream I am
describing we observed numerous specimens of a kind of silk cotton-tree
(Bombax): the diameter was sometimes as great as twent