Mr. Gore’s hand was dreadfully lacerated; but no bones were broken; and on recovering from his swoon, the first words he uttered were:  “Killed the bird!”—­an expression truly characteristic of a sportsman, and evincing how exactly the mind, when its perception has been momentarily suspended, reverts, on recovering, to the idea last present to it.

My first impulse was to return to the ship; but at the earnest request of Mr. Gore, who felt somewhat revived after I washed his hand in brandy and tied it up, we continued; but the utter silence and grave demeanour of all showed that each was occupied with thoughts of the danger some of us had escaped of being ushered unprepared into the presence of our Maker.  A rustling in the bushes on the bank, as we wound round an island of some size at the extremity of this nearly fatal reach, broke the reverie in which we were indulging.  Fancying it was a kangaroo, I fired at the spot, when a half-grown wild dog came rolling down into the water.  It was of a dark brown colour, with large patches of white, differing from any of the kind I had ever seen before.

Above this island we pursued a general West-South-West direction; but to our great mortification there was water for the yawl only four miles further.  In the gig I was able to ascend nearly two miles higher in a South-West by South direction.  Our position was then nine miles South-West 1/2 West from the mouth in a direct line; but thrice that distance by the meandering course of the inlet through this vast level.  The width had decreased from three hundred yards at the entrance to scarcely one hundred, and the depth from two fathoms to a quarter.  The banks were, at intervals fringed with mangroves, the country behind being very open plains, with patches of dwarf gums scattered here and there.

DUCKS, PIGEONS, ETC.

The brown whistling wood-ducks were in great abundance at the yawl’s furthest; and in three shots I bagged twenty.  The native companions were also numerous, of two kinds, one with black on the back, and the other, which kept more on the plain, of a blue or slate colour.  Pigeons, too, were abundant; and the rare large brown rail was frequently observed at low-water, running along the edge of the mangroves, too wary, however, as before, to be shot.  There were few alligators seen; and the only fish caught was the catfish, common in the Adelaide and Victoria Rivers.  Where the yawl lay the bank was clear, forming cliffs ten feet high, in which no stone or rock was found; neither had we seen any before.

ARRANGE FOR A PEDESTRIAN EXCURSION.

In the evening and early part of the night observations were made for our position.* A party was also arranged for a pedestrian excursion in the morning, as I was determined on seeing a few miles more of the interior than it was our good fortune to have obtained by water conveyance.  I had ordered a gun to be fired in the evening to inform Mr. Fitzmaurice and his party of the ship’s position; and we distinctly heard it booming over the plain, for the first time awakening the echoes to the sounds of warfare peculiar to civilized man.  May many years elapse ere they be once more roused by the voice of cannon fired with a less peaceful intent!