Before quitting this subject it may be as well to mention that my own impression, which the most recent information bears out, is that instead of an inland sea, there is in the centre of Australia a vast desert, the head of which, near Lake Torrens, is not more than three hundred feet above the level of the sea.  The coast being surrounded by hilly ranges, the great falls of rain that must occasionally occur in the interior, may convert a vast extent of the central and lowest portion, towards the north side of the continent, into a great morass, or lake, which, from the northerly dip, must discharge its waters slowly into the Gulf of Carpentaria, without possessing sufficient stability to mark either its bed or boundaries.

Friendly natives.

To return to the party of natives which has given rise to this digression.  They had clearly never seen a white person before; for they stepped up to one man of fair complexion, who had his trousers turned up over his knees, and began rubbing his skin to see whether it was painted.  They came fearlessly to our party, as they were collecting shells at the extremity of a long flat.  One of the officers, who happened to be very thirsty, placed such confidence in their friendly manner, that he allowed them to conduct him alone to a small well near the beach, but the water was too salt to be drunk.  The force of habit is astonishing:  natives drink this brackish fluid and find it very refreshing.  The small quantity that suffices them is also surprising, though they will drink enormously when they can get it.

Modes of procuring water.

Their mode of procuring this necessary element is singular, and they exhibit in this particular much ingenuity and great fertility of resources.  They are never harassed with the idea of being without any; which not only distresses but adds to the horror of thirst with the European explorer, who has not experienced the constant watchfulness of Providence, and does not know that he may collect from the leaves, with a sponge, on some mornings, as much as a pint of water.  This has, however, been done, even on the south coast, where the dews are not so copious as on the north-west.  The natives themselves are never at a loss for that indeed precious article, water.  They sometimes procure it by digging up the lateral roots of the small gumtree, a dusty and fatiguing operation:  they break them off in short bits, and set them up to drain into a piece of bark or a large shell.  By tapping also the knotty excrescences of trees they find the fluid, which they suck out.  Many of these modes of obtaining water are of course known to experienced bushmen, like Mr. Eyre, whose deeply interesting narrative of his hardships and perils has already enlisted the sympathy of the public.

September 12.

We moved the ship into Port Darwin, anchoring just within the eastern cliffy head which, to commemorate Lieutenant Emery’s success in finding water by digging, we named after him.