Maternal affection and fear.

Not so, however; despite the dreadful fear they appeared to entertain of the white man, maternal affection was strong within them, and risking all to save their offspring, they began to tow the raft with all their strength towards the shore.  This devotion on the part of the women to their little ones, was in strong contrast with the utter want of feeling shown by the men towards both mothers and children.

Captain Wickham now, no doubt to their extreme consternation, pulled after the men, and drove them back to the raft.  Some dived and tried thus to escape the boat, while others grinned ferociously, and appeared to hope, by dint of hideous grimaces—­such as are only suggested even to a savage by the last stage of fear—­to terrify the white men from approaching.  At length, however, they were all driven back to the raft, which was then towed across the harbour for them; a measure which they only were able to approve of when they had landed, and fear had quite subsided.

Doubtless, the forbearance of our party surprised them, for from their terrified looks and manner, when swimming with all their strength from the raft, they must have apprehended a fate at least as terrible as that of being eaten.

The raft itself was quite a rude affair, being formed of small bundles of wood lashed together, without any shape or form, quite different from any we had seen before.

Bynoe Harbour was found to terminate in three deep creeks branching off between North-East and South-East, the largest of which led into fresh water, but in small detached pools, which are separated from the salt, by a shelf of red porous sandstone, and which two miles further became entirely lost in the rocks.  The green appearance of the gumtrees and an occasional clump of palms, which had pleasingly succeeded the mangroves, as they advanced, assured Captain Wickham that there was fresh water near.  Probably, if they had carried their researches further, they would have found these signs reappear again, doubtless proceeding from a swamp, the presence of which the reader will recollect I inferred from seeing the ibis flocking from the south-west up the south inlet in Port Darwin; the west inlet of which is only one mile distant from the north-east creek in the head of Bynoe Harbour.  Doubtless when the country is not in its present parched and thirsty state, all these are fresh at their heads.

Well at port Darwin.

The slow progress made in watering, from the soft nature of the soil in the bottom of the well, lengthened our stay considerably in Port Darwin.  The water oozed through the sides, beginning to do so at a depth of twenty-five feet.  The strata cut through varied considerably, in part consisting of ironstone mixed with a white kind of marl or pipeclay, for eight feet, then sandstone of a reddish colour and in a state of