April 15.

The sky had continued overcast although no rain fell after the evening of the 13th.  This day however the wind changed from north-west to west and the sky became clear.

PIPER OBTAINS A GIN.

The surveying party returned from the lake by midday; and with it came also Piper, my aboriginal interpreter, who had gone there chiefly with the view of obtaining a gin, a speculation which I thought rather hazardous on his part; yet, strange to say, a good strong woman marched behind him into our camp, loaded with a new opossum-skin cloak, and various presents, that had been given to Piper with her.  How he contrived to settle this important matter with a tribe to whom he was an utter stranger could not be ascertained; for he left our party on the lake by night, going quite alone to the natives, and returned from their camp in the morning followed by his gin.  To obtain a gin at Cudjallagong was the great ambition of most of the natives we had left behind, among whom were two, friends of Piper, whom I compelled to return, and who were most anxious to accompany us that they might obtain wives at this place.

ASCEND GOULBURN RANGE.

April 16.

The morning was beautifully clear and I set out for the summit of Goulburn range, named Yerrarar, fourteen miles distant from the camp.  The country we rode over was so thinly wooded that the hill was visible nearly the whole way.  The soil was good and firmer than the common surface of the plains, the basis being evidently different, consisting rather of trap than of the sandstone so prevalent elsewhere.  At exactly halfway we passed a hill of trap-rock, connected with a low range extending towards still higher ground nearer Regent’s lake, on the eastern side.  This was the first trap-rock I had seen besides that of the lake during our whole journey down the Lachlan.

VIEW FROM THE SUMMIT.

On the summit I found hornstone and granular felspar.  The whole of Goulburn range consisted also of the same rock.  It was rather light-coloured, partially decomposed, and lay in rounded nodules and boulders which formed however ridges across the slopes of the ground, tending in general 12 or 14 degrees East of North.  The hills were everywhere rocky, so that the ascent cost us nearly an hour, and we were forced to lead our horses; but it was well worth the pains for the summit afforded a very extensive prospect.  The most interesting feature in the country was Regent’s lake which, although fifteen miles distant, seemed at our feet, reflecting like a mirror the trees on its margin; and on the other side we looked into the unknown west, where the horizon seemed as level as the ocean.  In vain I examined it with a powerful telescope, in search of some remote pic; only a level and thinly wooded country extended beyond the reach even of telescopic vision.

With the spirit-level of my theodolite I found that the most depressed part extended about due west by compass, a circumstance which first made me imagine the Lachlan might have some channel in that direction.