(Footnote.  Trigonella suavissima, Lindley manuscripts; caulibus porstratis, foliolis obcordatis cum dente interjecto subdentatis subtus pilosiusculis, stipulis semisagittatis aristato-dentatis trinerviis, umbellis paucifloris sessilibus, leguminibus falcatis reticulatis glabris.)

Finding that the minor river-course which had been at one time within half a mile of the Darling was again receding from that river, so that when I wished to encamp I saw no appearance of it within six miles, and that no more water could be seen in the dry channel, I crossed over and made for the Darling in a west-south-west direction.

OLD CANOE.  DRY STATE OF THE COUNTRY.

Exactly where the carts passed the dry channel a native’s fishing canoe, complete with the small oar or spear and two little cords, lay in the dry and grassy bed of this quondam river where now we were likely to pass the night without finding water.* The intervening plain became very soft and distressing to the draught animals, and we were compelled to encamp on the edge of a scrub which bounded it, and at a distance of about four miles from the Darling.  This was a long way to send our cattle, but the observance of our usual custom seemed preferable upon the whole, even in this extreme case, to passing the night without water.  The sun was just setting when oxen and horses were driven towards the west in quest of the Darling, our only and never-failing resource at that time.  Magnetic variation 7 degrees 8 minutes 15 seconds East.

(Footnote.  Large shells of the Unio genus projected from the hard and grassy surface, which had evidently been in the state of mud for a sufficient time to admit of their growth.)

DANGER AND DIFFICULTY OF WATCHING THE CATTLE ON THE RIVERBANKS.

July 2.

The men who returned with water for the camp last evening had obtained it at a lagoon short of the river, and where a large tribe of natives were seated by their fires.  Another party of our men had driven the cattle to the river itself, for on its banks alone could any tolerable grass be found.  I was therefore apprehensive that the natives would molest the cattle, when so far from our camp, and I accordingly sent six men armed to watch them.  They returned about eleven o’clock this morning with all the cattle except one bullock; and as the drivers had been closely followed by the natives from daybreak it was then supposed that the animal had been speared.  One of our wheels requiring new spokes, I proceeded only four miles this day, towards an angle of the river, in order to encamp in a good position and recover the missing animal alive or dead.  The death of a bullock by the hands of the natives would have been a most unfortunate circumstance at that time, not so much because this was one of our best working animals, as because the dread with which these animals inspired the natives was one of our best defences.  If they once learned to face and kill them it would be difficult for us, under present circumstances, to prevent the loss of many, and still more serious evils might follow.  As soon as we took up our ground therefore I sent six men in search of the lost bullock; and before night they had followed his track to within a mile and a half of our camp near the river.  Meanwhile we had found, long before their return, that he had fortunately joined the others early in the morning.