we require both fire and clothing and have no conception of the intensity of enjoyment imparted to the naked body of a savage by the glowing embrace of a cloud of smoke in winter.  In summer also he may enjoy, unrestrained by dress, the luxury of a bath in any pool when not content with the refreshing breeze that fans his sensitive body during the intense heat.  Amidst all this exposure the skin of the Australian native remains as smooth and soft as velvet, and it is not improbable that the obstructions of drapery would constitute the greatest of his objections in such a climate to the permanent adoption of a civilised life.

A RANGE VISIBLE IN THE SOUTH.

June 22.

A night of hard frost was succeeded by a beautifully clear morning.  The refraction brought the summits of a distant range above the south-east horizon; and the sight was so welcome to us, after having found Australia a mere desert from the want of hills, that I was at a loss for a name to give these that should sufficiently express my satisfaction.  I found the breadth of the river at our camp to be 50 yards; and the velocity 4 chains (or 88 yards) in 127 seconds, being something less than a mile and a half per hour; and the height of the bank above the water to be 18 inches.

PECULIARITIES IN THE SURFACE OF THE COUNTRY NEAR THE RIVER.

The entirely open country through which the nearer river or branch continued to flow, and the lofty and remarkable trees on the banks of the other enabled me, in chaining along our route, to survey the course of both by fixing points on the more distant, and tracing the nearer.  At length we approached a better-wooded country where clear green hills appeared to our right.  I ascended the highest of these and discovered a vast plain beyond which appeared to be, or rather to have been, the bed of an extensive lake.  I was now struck with the uncommon regularity of the curve described by the hill or ridge, having previously observed the same peculiarity in that which overlooked the lake of the savage tribe.  We passed over some slight undulations covered with luxuriant grass, and were not sorry to see a wood of pines (or callitris) on our left.  Large gumtrees (yarra) grew beyond and, the general course I wished to pursue leading towards them, I hoped to reach there an angle of the river.  We found however that they hung over a small ana-branch only, in which the muddy flood-water of the river was then flowing.  This stream was nevertheless exactly what we wanted, being safely accessible to our cattle, which the river itself was not.  We therefore pitched our tents on a spot where there was excellent grass, and wood was again to be had in great abundance.  We found in the adjacent scrub a remarkably rigid bush with stiff sickle-shaped blunt leaves and mealy balls of flowers not quite expanded;* also an acacia resembling A. hispidula, but the leaves were quite smooth and much smaller.** In approaching this spot we had passed along a low sandy ridge, every way resembling a beach but covered with pines and scrub.  A bare grassy hill extended southward from each end of it; and the intervening hollow containing some water was evidently the bed of a lake, nearly dry.