(Footnote.  Named after the unfortunate Captain Barker by his friend Captain Sturt.)

ENCOUNTER BAY.

Our party was to have been here joined by Governor Grey, who, however, did not arrive till late next morning; when, after examining the slate quarries in the neighbourhood, where the cleavage and quality equalled any I have seen in Wales, we left for Encounter Bay, bearing nearly south-east.  The first three miles of the road lay over stony ridges; and the next eighteen traversed the worst part of the province, a sandy, scrubby, slightly undulating country, about five hundred feet above the sea.  We were glad to find ourselves descending from this wearisome sterile tract upon some rich flats at the head of the river Hindmarsh, named after the first governor of the colony.  These we followed four miles in a South-South-East direction, where meeting the river, its tortuous course led to the southward for about five miles.  Where it joins the sea, in the north-western corner of Encounter Bay, a township, also named Hindmarsh, had been laid out, which will, doubtless, be a pleasant summer residence, as we felt a great change in the temperature; indeed the evening was quite bleak, with a moderate breeze from seaward.

I was naturally much interested in this part of my journey, being anxious to see if the shelter here existing merited the name, given in the chart, of Victor Harbour; but the only protection, excepting for a small vessel in the north-west corner, and from northerly and westerly winds, is under a little island, where it is possible one or two vessels may lie.  From Hindmarsh I saw the entrance of Lake Alexandrina, among some sandhills at the entrance of which Captain Barker was murdered by the natives; a circumstance which gave rise to the name of Encounter Bay, and attached a melancholy interest to the spot.

NATIVE MODE OF FISHING.

Here for the first time, I met a Murray River native among a party of others.  He was certainly the finest Australian in make I had ever seen, being robust and stout, like a South Sea Islander.  A German Missionary, who had a native school at Hindmarsh, took us to see a curious method of catching fish resorted to at this place, which, as it has not been noticed by Mr. Eyre, I shall describe.  A party of natives, each provided with a large square piece of net, rolled up, with a stick at either end, swam out to a certain distance from shore, and spread themselves into a semicircle.  Every man then relinquished one of the sticks round which his piece of net was rolled, to his right-hand neighbour, and received another from his left; when, bringing the two together, a great seine was formed.  They now swam in, followed by other natives, who, by throwing stones and splashing the water, frightened the fish, and prevented them from getting out.

VISIT RAPID BAY.