RIFLE RANGE.

We next traversed an extensive moor or heath on which the rising ground was firm, and a little way beyond it some rising ground bounded our view.  On ascending this highest feature which I named the Rifle range I found it commanded an extensive view over a low and woody country.

MOUNT GAMBIER FIRST SEEN FROM IT.

One peaked hill alone appeared on the otherwise level horizon and this bore 68 degrees West of South.  I supposed this to be Mount Gambier near Cape Northumberland which, according to my survey, ought to have appeared in that direction at a distance of forty-five miles.

STERILE MOORS CROSSED BY THE PARTY.

I expected to find the river on reaching the lower country beyond this range; but instead of the Glenelg and the rich country on its banks we entered on extensive moors of the most sterile description.  They were however firm enough for travelling upon, the surface being very level and the soil a whitish sand.  These open wastes were interrupted in some parts by clumps of stringybark forest which entirely concealed from view the extent of this kind of country.  Swamps full of water and containing reeds of a dark yellow colour at length became numerous; and although I succeeded in pursuing a course clear of these obstacles, we were obliged to encamp at twilight without having any immediate prospect of a better country before us.  There was however abundance of grass in these wet swamps and our carts passed over one quite covered with water without sinking.  Our camp was marked out on a low hill of white sand on which grew mahogany and stringybark trees of large dimensions.  The ridge from which we had descended now appeared continuous as far as we could see eastward.

NATIVES NUMEROUS BUT NOT ACCESSIBLE.

Much smoke arose from this lower country when we entered upon it and after sunset the incessant calls of a native were heard near our camp as if he had lost some comrade.  I sent up a rocket that he might be convinced we had not arrived by stealth as the tribes do when they insidiously make war on each other, but he only reiterated his calls the more.

August 13.

At daybreak the cries of the native were renewed.  I then made Piper cooey to him whereupon he became silent and I heard him no more, the natives of that country being, as Piper expressed it “still very wild.”  This morning we were on the march as soon as the sun rose, all being very anxious to see the river again and a better country.  At two miles we passed along a sandy ridge between two extensive swamps; but at a mile and a half farther I found at length a small hollow and water running in it, a feature which convinced me at once that the river could not be very distant.  In the bank there was a thin stratum of shelly limestone bearing a resemblance to some of the oolitic limestones of England; and in the bed were irregular concretions of ironstone containing grains of quartz, some of the concretions having externally a glazed appearance arising from a thin coating of compact brown haematite.