ROCKS NEAR IT.

That the lake is sometimes a splendid sheet of water was obvious in its line of shores.  These were overhung on the south-western side by rocky eminences which in some parts consisted of a red calcareous tuff containing fragments of schist; in others, of trap-rock or basalt which was very hard and black.  The opposite shore was lower, with water-worn cliffs of reddish clay.  By these cliffs and the beaches of drifted sand under them, we perceived that the prevailing winds in all times of high flood came from the south-west; the north-east side being very different from the opposite, which was free from sand and bore no such marks of chaffing waves.

TRAP AND TUFF.

At two places the banks are so low that in high floods the water must flow over them to the westward and supply, as I supposed, Campbell’s lake, called Goorongully, and that to the north-east of Regent’s lake.  Upon the whole it appeared that the trap which originally elevated the western shore had either partially subsided, or that it was connected with a crater or cavity of which the only vestige is this lake.  The calcareous conglomerate was unlike any rock I had seen elsewhere, consisting in part of a tuff resembling the matrix of the fossil bones found in limestone fissures.  It is also worthy of notice that it appears in some low undulations which extend from the lake to the river, and that the channel conveying the waters to the lake lies in a hollow between them.

NATIVES THERE.

On first approaching the lake we saw the natives in the midst of the water, gathering the mussels (unio).  I sent Piper forward to tell them who we were, and thus, if possible, prevent any alarm at our appearance.  It began to rain heavily as we rode round; and although detached parties of gins on the south shore had taken fright, left their huts and run to the main camp, I was glad to find, when we rode up, that they remained quietly there, under cover from the heavy rain.  These huts or gunyas consisted of a few green boughs which had just been put up for shelter from the rain then falling.  The tribe consisted of about a hundred.

WOMEN.

The females and children were in huts at some distance from those of the men.  A great number sat huddled together and cowered down under each gunya, their skinny limbs being so folded before their bodies that the head rested upon the knees.  Among the faces were some which, being hideously painted white (the usual badge of mourning) grinned horribly; and the whole was so characteristic a specimen of life among the aborigines that the heavy rain did not prevent me from making a sketch.  While I was thus employed the natives very hospitably made a fire in a vacant gunya, evidently for the purpose of warming poor Barney, our guide, who seemed miserably cold, having no covering except a jacket, thoroughly wet.

MEN.