(Footnote.  See below.)

June 12.

We travelled for several miles over stony ground which gradually rose to a hill on our right, and then declined rapidly to the river.  Descending at length to the level ground, we passed through much scrub which terminated on a plain, bounded on the side opposite to us by the large gumtrees or eucalypti, the never-failing indicators of the river.  The stream there ran in a rather contracted channel, and over a sandy bed.  Its course was to the southward, in which direction extensive plains appeared to stretch along its bank.

MEET THE PUPPY TRIBE.

As I approached the river a tribe of natives who were seated very near me at their fires, under a large tree, called out.  We communicated in the usual manner, but I could learn nothing from them about the general course of the Darling lower down.  I gave them a clasp-knife and two young pups of a good breed for killing kangaroos.  They expressed astonishment at everything (no common trait in the aborigines) and I was obliged to sit cross-legged before a very old chief nearly blind while he examined my dress, shirt, pockets, etc.  This tribe, like the others, was not at all numerous.

We proceeded until we arrived under the north-western extremity of Dunlop’s range, when we encamped on the margin of a small lagoon, evidently the remains of some flood which had been produced by the overflowing of the river, only half a mile distant to the north-west.  The lagoon was more convenient to us for watering our cattle than the river, the left bank of which, adjacent to our camp, was broken to a much greater distance back than I had observed it to be anywhere higher up.

ASCEND DUNLOP’S RANGE.

June 13.

The wheels of the two carts requiring some repairs, and it being also necessary to shoe several horses, I thought it advisable to rest the party this day:  I wished also to ascend Dunlop’s range.  On climbing to the top I found that it consisted of a chain of hills composed of a very hard sandstone, or quartz rock, similar to that of D’Urban’s group.  The summit was bare, not only of trees but even of grass, or any vegetation.  This nakedness was however the more favourable for my chief object, which was to obtain a view of the distant country.  The weather was not very auspicious, the sky being cloudy, and slight showers fell occasionally.  The height of these hills is not considerable, the summit of that which I ascended was about 528 feet above the plains.  It was seven miles to the south-east of the camp and at the north-west extremity of the range, or the most western part visible from D’Urban’s group.  I never ascended a hill with feelings of keener interest in the views it commanded.  Eastward I beheld that hilly country which I had always considered to lie in the best line of exploration; and from this point it looked well.

HIGH LAND DISCOVERED TO THE WESTWARD.