or friend of the deceased (probably a brother) and that the body was thus watched and attended in the grave through the process of corruption or, as Piper interpreted her account, until no flesh remains on the bones; “and then he yan (i.e. goes) away!” No fire, the constant concomitant of places of shelter, had ever been made within this abode alike of the living and the dead, although remains of several recent fires appeared on the heath outside.

DEAD TREES AMONG THE REEDS.

In the afternoon we came upon the river where rich weeds and lofty reeds enveloped a soft luxuriant soil.  The yarra, or bluegum, not only grew on its banks, but spread over the flats; but I remarked that where the reeds grew thickest most of the trees were dead; and that almost all bore on their trunks the marks of inundation.  These dead trees among reeds suggest several questions:  Were they killed by the frequent burning of the reeds in summer?  If so, how came they to grow first to such a size among them?  Or did excess of moisture or its long continuance kill them?  Are seasons now different from those which must have admitted of the growth of these trees for half a century?  Or have changes in the levels of the deposits made by the larger rivers below, produced inundations above, to a greater extent than they had spread formerly?

I was returning with the overseer from examining the country some miles in advance of the carts, and with the intention of encamping where I had left them halted, when I found the men had followed my track into some bad ground.  After extricating them from it I proceeded three miles further to Bidyengoga, which we did not reach until dark.  Water was found in the bed of the Lachlan on our penetrating through a broad margin of reeds towards some lofty yarra trees.  Latitude 34 degrees 12 minutes 17 seconds South; longitude 144 degrees 18 minutes East.

VISIT SOME RISING GROUND.

May 11.

Rising ground appeared on the horizon about four miles to the north-west, and an intervening plain of firm clay covered with atriplex and salsolae rose towards it from the very margin of the reedy basin of the river.  Although anxious to see the junction of the Lachlan and Murrumbidgee, curiosity irresistible led me to the rising ground, while Mr. Stapylton traced the supposed line of the Lachlan and the overseer conducted the carts and party westward.  Unlike the hills I had seen on the limits of interior plains elsewhere, the ridge I now visited consisted of the same rich loam as the plains themselves.

VIEW NORTHWARD.

It was connected with other low ridges which extended in a north-western direction into a country finely diversified with hill, dale, and patches of wood, but in all probability at that time entirely without water.  The dry bed of a lake lay in a valley immediately north of the hills on which I stood.  A few trees of stunted appearance alone grew in the hollow.  On the top of this ridge I ate a russet apple which had grown in my garden at Sydney, and I planted the seeds in a spot of rich earth likely to be saturated with water as often as it fell from the heavens.