traced the course of the river it appeared to flow towards the west-south-west, and it was thus doubtful, at that stage of our progress, whether the estuary might not be to the westward of Cape Northumberland; whereas my chief inducement in looking for a river on this side of the Grampians was the promising situation afforded by the great bay to the eastward of that cape for some harbour or estuary, and this being more likely, considering the position of the mountains.  I had little doubt that under such circumstances some river would be found to enter the sea there and, having left the Wimmera flowing westward, and crossed as I imagined the highest ground that could extend from the mountain range to Cape Bernouilli, I expected to meet at length with rivers falling southward.  The ultimate course of the Glenelg could only be ascertained by following it down, and to do this by land was not easy; first because it was joined by many small tributaries flowing through deep valleys and from all points of the compass; and secondly, because the general horizon was so level that no point commanding any extensive view over the country could be found.  Thus while our main object was to pursue the river, we were obliged to grope our way round the heads of ravines often very remote from it, but which were very perplexing from their similarity to the ravine in which the main stream flowed.  A more bountiful distribution of the waters for the supply of a numerous population could not be imagined, nor a soil better adapted for cultivation.  We this day crossed various small rivulets or chains of ponds, each watering a grassy vale, sheltered by fine swelling hills.  The whole country consisted of open forest land on which grew a few gumtrees (or eucalypti) with banksia and occasionally a few casuarinae.

FISHES PECULIAR TO DIFFERENT PONDS.

August 3.

The ponds where we had encamped were large and deep, and I endeavoured to ascertain whether the cod-perch (Gristes peelii) inhabited these waters.  Neither this fine fish nor either of the two others found in the streams flowing towards the interior from the eastern coast range have ever been seen in the rivers which reach the eastern shores; and I had now ascertained that all the waters in which we had procured the fish in question belonged to the extensive basin of the Murray.  We were at length on channels evidently distinct, both from those leading to the eastern coast and those belonging to the basin of the Murray.  The beds of the rivers flowing to the east coast are chiefly rocky, containing much sand but very little mud, consequently no reeds grow on their banks, nor is the freshwater mussel found in them, as in rivers on the interior side, which in general flow over a muddy bed and are not unfrequently distinguished by reedy banks.  Judging therefore from the nature of the soil of this southern region, the fishes peculiar to the Murray might be looked for in the rivers of the south, rather than those fishes known in the rivers falling eastward.  It was important to ascertain at least what point of the coast separated the rivers containing different kinds of fish.  In these ponds we caught only some very small fry, and the question could not be satisfactorily determined, although the natives declared that none of them were the spawn of cod-perch.