NATIVES REFUSE TO EAT EMU.

It is singular that none of the natives would eat of this bird; and the reasons they gave were that they were young men, and that none but older men who had gins were allowed to eat it; adding that it would make young men all over boils or eruptions.  This rule of abstinence was also rigidly observed by our interpreter Piper.

NATIVE DOG.

Late in the night I was awoke by one of the watch firing a pistol at a native dog which had got close to the sheepfold.  At the same moment a sheep leaped out and, having been at the first alarm pursued by our dogs, it was worried in the bed of the river.  The native dog having howled as it escaped was supposed to have been wounded.  To prevent such occurrences in future and as this arose from a neglect of my original plan, the two fires of the men’s tents were ordered to be again placed in such positions as threw light around the sheepfold, which was of canvas fastened to portable stakes and pegs. (See plan of camp, Volume 1.)

KALINGALUNGAGUY.

April 11.

We left this camp (named Camarba) and continued our journey around the great bend of the Lachlan at which point (4 1/2 miles from our camp) the low ridge of Kalingalungaguy closed on the river.  This ridge is a remarkable feature, extending north and south, and I expected to see some tributary from the north entering the river here; but we crossed on the east side of the ridge only a wide, dry and grassy hollow, which was however evidently the channel of a considerable body of water in times of flood, as appeared by marks on the trees which grew along the banks.  All were of the dwarf box kind, named goborro by the natives, a sort of eucalyptus which usually grows by itself on the lower margins of the Darling and Lachlan, and other parts subject to inundation, and on which the occasional rise of the waters is marked by the dark colour remaining on the lower part of the trunk.  In the bed of the Lachlan at the junction of the channel near Kalingalungaguy I found quartz rock.

MR. STAPYLTON OVERTAKES THE PARTY.

We had not proceeded far beyond that ridge when Mr. Stapylton overtook the party, having travelled in great haste from Sydney to join us as second in command, in compliance with my letter of instructions sent from Buree.  Mr. Stapylton was accompanied by two stockmen, having left his own light equipments at Cordowe, a station above Mount Cunningham.  On the plains which we crossed this day grew in great abundance that beautiful species of lily found in the expedition of 1831, and already mentioned under the name of Calostemma candidum,* also the Calostemma luteum of Ker with yellow flowers.

(Footnote.  Volume 1.  C. candidum; floribus centralibus subsessilibus, articulo infra medium in pedicellis longioribus, corona integerrima.)