for some time.  I entered one of them through a small arched opening of about twenty inches or two feet high, and found three or four nets, made with thin strips of cane, about five feet long, with an opening of about eight inches in diameter at one end, getting gradually smaller for about four feet, where there was a small opening into a large round sort of basket.  These nets were laid by the natives in narrow channels to catch fish, as well as in the tracks of small animals, such as rats and bandicoots, for the purpose of trapping them.  There were also some pieces of glass bottle in the hut, carefully wrapped in bark and placed in a very neat basket, made in the shape of a lady’s reticule.  The glass is used by the natives in marking themselves:  all of them being scarred on the arms and breast, while some were marked on the cheeks and forehead.

In the camp we thus discovered were small stone ovens, similar to those we had found in the camp at Rockingham Bay, as well as one with a large flat stone raised six or eight inches from the ground, and a fireplace of loose stones beneath.  Near to one of the tents was a large stone hollowed out in the middle, and two or three round pebbles for pounding dried seeds, etc.

October 7 and 8.

Flat sandy ground, with occasional patches of scrub, composed of bushy Melaleucas, Hibiscus, Banksia, and several rambling plants, with a few large palms scattered in places; there was not much grass, except at intervals.

October 9.

This morning we came to a river, running into Princess Charlotte’s Bay, in latitude 14 degrees 30 minutes South, longitude 143 degrees 56 minutes.  It was deep, and about 100 yards wide, the water salt, and the tide was flowing up fast, and the banks were high.  A few scattered mangroves, and a leguminous tree, with rough cordate leaves, and large one or two-seeded legumes, were growing on the banks.  We were obliged to turn southerly for a short distance, and found what we had fancied to be a river to be only a small creek.  We crossed it about twelve or fourteen miles from the sea, but the water was brackish.  The trees on the sandy ground were broad-leafed Melaleucas, Grevilleas, and nondas, and by the waterholes which we occasionally saw, were Stravadiums and drooping Melaleucas.  I also saw a species of Stravadium with racemes of white flowers, much longer than the others, with leaves ten inches long by four inches broad, and the trees thirty feet high.  Keeping at a distance from the sea-coast to avoid the saltwater creeks, and to obtain good grass for our horses, we halted in the middle of the day, and were visited by a great many natives, coming in all directions, and making a great noise.  They appeared to have been collecting nondas, as a great many of their women were carrying large basketfuls away.  After the women were out of sight they made signs to us to go away.  We got our horses together, and endeavoured to make them friendly, but our entreaties were disregarded,