SURPRISED BY A PARTY OF NATIVES.

June 11.

In the morning, while examining the river below the fall, some natives hailed me from the opposite side, and soon afterwards, having slyly swum the river, they stole suddenly upon us while I sat drawing the cataract.  One of our men heard them creeping along the bank above us, whereupon the whole party stood up and laughed.  Among them I recognised the old man whom I had seen a few days previously on my excursion lower down the river.  There was another old man who was more intelligent and less covetous than the rest.  I gave him a clasp-knife with which he appeared much pleased, making the most expressive gestures of friendship and kindness by clasping me around the neck, and patting my back.  The number of this tribe amounted to about twenty.  I remarked among them an old woman having under her especial care a very fine-looking young one.  They had swum across the river with as little inconvenience as if they had only stepped over it.  The teeth and shape of the mouth of the young female were really beautiful, and indeed her person and modest air presented a good specimen of Australian womanhood.  On leaving us they loudly pronounced a particular word which I as often repeated in reply; and they pointed to the earth and the water, giving us to understand in every way they could that we were welcome to the water, which they probably considered their own.

EMU KILLED BY THE DOGS.

As we crossed a plain the dogs set off after three emus, the pursued and the pursuers disappearing in the woods.  Some time after, while passing through a scrub, we came upon the dogs standing quietly beside a dead emu.  If not the first killed by them, it was at least the first that fell into our hands; and if this were the only one they had killed it was singular enough that the capture should have happened exactly in the line of our route.  This acquisition we considered a favourable omen on our approaching the hills, for we had begun to despair of obtaining any of these swift though gigantic birds, inhabitants of the plains.

DUNLOP’S RANGE.

At length we reached rising ground, rather a novelty to us; and I continued my course across a ridge which appeared to be connected on the south with Dunlop’s range.  It consisted of a very hard conglomerate composed of irregular concretions of milk-white quartz, in a ferruginous basis, with apparently compact felspar weathering white.  It seemed the same kind of rock which I found nearest to the Karaula, in latitude 29 degrees.* On this hill we encamped for the night, the bend of the river nearest to us bearing north-north-east, and being distant about two miles.  It was almost sunset before we took up our ground, and we had still to seek the nearest way to the river, through woods.  Such occasions tried the nettle of my men; but he who, at the close of such days, was the first to set out for the river, with his bucket in hand, and musket on shoulder, was the man for me.  Such men were Whiting, Muirhead, and The Doctor; and although I insisted on several going together on such an errand, I had some trouble to prevent these from setting out alone.  The river made a sharp turn northward, and at the bend the water was deeper and broader than we had seen it elsewhere.  The taste was perfectly sweet.