July 16.

I slept on a snug bit of turf within two feet of the stream; so that the welcome murmur of its rippling waters assisted my dreams of undiscovered rivers.  As soon as morning dawned I succeeded in finding a ford on that branch across which we swam our horses on the 13th.  We thus met with less cause of delay and reached the camp at an early hour, with excellent appetites for breakfast.

NATIVES AT THE CAMP DURING MY ABSENCE.

Two natives had visited the party during my absence and had slept by the fires.  They had been at cattle stations and could say “milk.”  They consequently approached our camp boldly, and during the night showed much restlessness, endeavouring to decoy the gins away with them.  But The Widow gave the alarm, and very properly handed over these insidious wooers to the especial surveillance of the man on duty.  Notwithstanding they were vigilantly watched they contrived to steal a tomahawk, and went off leaving their wooden shovels at our camp, saying they should return.  I had now several men on the sicklist, but under the treatment of Drysdale, our medical attendant, they speedily recovered.

CHAPTER 3.9.

Plains of stiff clay. 
The Wimmera. 
Difficult passage of its five branches. 
Ascend Mount Zero. 
Circular lake, brackish water. 
The Wimmera in a united channel. 
Lose this river. 
Ascend Mount Arapiles. 
Mr. Stapylton’s excursion northward. 
Salt lakes. 
Green Hill lake. 
Mitre lake. 
Relinquish the pursuit of the Wimmera. 
The party travels to the south-west. 
Red lake. 
Small lakes of fresh water. 
White lake. 
Basketwork of the natives. 
Muddy state of the surface. 
Mr. Stapylton’s ride southward. 
Disastrous encounter of one man with a native. 
A tribe makes its appearance. 
More lakes of brackish water. 
Escape at last from the mud. 
Encamp on a running stream. 
Fine country. 
Discovery of a good river. 
Granitic soil. 
Passage of the Glenelg. 
Country well watered. 
Pigeon ponds. 
Soft soil again impedes the party. 
Halt to repair the carts and harness. 
Natives very shy. 
Chetwynd rivulet. 
Slow progress over the soft surface. 
Excursion into the country before us. 
Beautiful region discovered. 
The party extricated with difficulty from the mud.

PLAINS OF STIFF CLAY.

July 17.

The ground on the sides of the low hills was still so soft (and in this respect I had found the country we had lately crossed even worse than that previously traversed by the carts) that the only prospect which remained to us of being able to continue the journey was by proceeding over the plains extending along the interior side of the Grampians of the South.  The soil of such plains consisted chiefly of clay, and we had recently found that it bore the wheels