by a small dog.  Their teeth were entire, but they were all circumcised.  At 8.0 p.m. the blacks were detected stealing into the camp, and, though we called upon them to retire, only hid themselves in the grass; but as it was absolutely necessary for our own safety to dislodge them from their position, I caused a gun to be fired in the air, hoping that they would retire, but they commenced to ship their spears, and I therefore ordered a charge of shot to be fired at them, which had the desired effect of compelling them to retreat.  What their object was in thus approaching the camp at night, unless for hostile purposes, we had no means of ascertaining; but the aboriginal Australian considers it an act of positive hostility to approach a camp in silence at night.

Latitude by a Coronae Borealis 14 degrees 59 minutes 6 seconds.

20th July.

Starting at 7.30 a.m., steered south-east over an undulating sandstone country, well grassed, but very stony and thinly wooded; a low range of rocky hills, nearly parallel to our route, lay to the south-west, and at 11.20 a.m. we camped at a fine running stream in a rocky ravine in this range; the grass was, however, very dry and inferior near the range.

Latitude by a Coronae Borealis 15 degrees 4 minutes 31 seconds.

21st July.

The horses had shown an unusual desire to stray during the night, and as we had reason to apprehend a visit from the blacks, they were kept close to the camp; at 6.20 a.m. steered south-east, crossing a tableland about 250 feet above the camp, and at 8.0 a.m. descended by a rocky gully, in which was a fine spring, into a grassy valley, which varied from a few yards to a mile in breadth, bounded by sandstone hills, the strata of which were not well defined, but appeared to have a considerable dip to the west-south-west; in the upper part of the valley the creek was well supplied with water, but as we advanced into the lower ground the channel was dry, though increased to twenty yards wide and ten to fifteen feet deep; at 11.15 a.m. one of the horses, Prince, was observed to be unwell, and at 1.20 p.m. a second horse, Bob, was noticed to be suffering from illness, having bled them, we proceeded down the creek in search of water at which the party could halt, and found a small waterhole at 2.20 p.m., but the two sick horses dropped dead about 150 yards before reaching it; their loads had been previously removed to the saddle-horses; as soon as the camp had been formed Mr. Elsey and Dr. Mueller examined the dead horses to ascertain the cause of death, and it appeared from the state of extreme inflammation of the stomachs that they had eaten some poisonous plant; but the food was too much comminuted to admit of the plants eaten being recognised.

Latitude by a Coronae Borealis 15 degrees 12 minutes 46 seconds.

22nd July.