THE WATER INACCESSIBLE FROM SOFT AND MUDDY BANKS.

Grass was also to be found among them and I was willing to encamp there; but the difficulty was in finding a spot where the cattle could approach the water.  The flood ran high in the deep and rapid river; yet the margin was covered with high reeds and, although I ultimately encamped near a small lagoon within the reeds, the cattle would not venture to drink at it, instinctively shrinking back from the muddy margin.  In the course of the evening one animal fell into the river and was extricated with great difficulty and after much digging in the bank.  One remarkable difference between this river and the Murrumbidgee was that, in the latter, even where reeds most prevailed, a certain space near the bank remained tolerably clear:  whereas on this river the reeds grew most thickly and closely on its immediate banks, thus presenting a much less imposing appearance than the Murrumbidgee, with its firmer banks crowned with lofty forests of yarra.  Each Australian river seems to have some peculiar character, sustained with remarkable uniformity throughout the whole course.

HABITS OF OUR NATIVE GUIDES.

June 19.

Piper, although so far from his country, could still point directly to it, but he had grown so homesick that he begged Burnett not to mention Bathurst.  To return except with us was quite out of the question, and as we still receded he dragged, as the phrase is, a lengthening chain.  He studied my visage however and could read my thoughts too well to doubt that I too hoped to return.  The whole management of the chase now devolved on him and the two boys, his humble servants; and this native party usually explored the woods with our dogs for several miles in front of the column.  The females kept nearer the party, and often gave us notice of obstacles in time to enable me to avoid them.  My question on such occasions was Dago nyollong yannagary? (Which way shall we go? ) to which one would reply, pointing in the proper direction, Yalyai nyollong-yannar! (Go that way.) Depending chiefly on the survey for my longitude, my attention was for the most part confined to the preservation of certain bearings in our course by frequent observations of the pocket compass; but in conducting carts where no roads existed, propitiating savage natives, taking bearings and angles, observing rocks, soil and productions, so much care and anxious attention was necessary that I believe I was indebted to the sympathy even of my aboriginal friends for the zealous aid they at all times afforded.

Notwithstanding the obvious necessity for closely watching the cattle, they had been suffered to ramble nine miles up the river during the night; and were not brought back to the camp until noon.  This unusual and untoward circumstance was the more surprising as the whole country along the riverbank was covered with good grass.  Whether they had instinctively set off towards the upper country, where most of them were bred; or that want of water after a hard day’s work had occasioned such restlessness, it was difficult to say; but they wandered even beyond the camp that we reached this day in a journey commenced however only at half-past 12.