Of the evil tendency of giving these people presents I was now convinced, and fully determined not to give more then.  This resolution the natives having discovered very acutely, their ringleaders vanished like phantoms down the steep cliffs, and we heard no more of the rest.  It is possible that this portion of the tribe had not then received intelligence of what had befallen the others or they would not have advanced so boldly up.  Be that as it may they followed us no more, having probably heard in the course of the day from the division of the tribe which we had driven across the Murray.

BARREN SANDS AND THE EUCALYPTUS DUMOSA.  PLANTS WHICH GROW ON THE SAND AND BIND IT DOWN.

The river taking a turn to the southward, we again entered the dumosa scrub but it was more open than we had seen it elsewhere.  The soil consisted of barren sand; there was no grass, but there were tufts of a prickly bush which tortured the horses and tore to rags the men’s clothes about their ankles.  I observed that this bush and the Eucalyptus dumosa grew only where the sand seemed too barren and loose for the production of anything else; so loose indeed was it that, but for this dwarf tree and prickly grass, the sand must have drifted so as to overwhelm the vegetation of adjacent districts, as in other desert regions where sand predominates.  Nature appears to have provided curiously against that evil here by the abundant distribution of two plants so singularly adapted to such a soil.  The root of the Eucalyptus dumosa resembles that of a large tree; but instead of a trunk only a few branches rise above the ground, forming an open kind of bush, often so low that a man on horseback may look over it for miles.  The heavy spreading roots however of this dwarf tree and the prickly grass together occupy the ground and seem intended to bind down the sands of the vast interior deserts of Australia.  Their disproportioned roots also prevent the bushes from growing very close together and, the stems being leafless except at the top, this kind of eucalyptus is almost proof against the running fires of the bush.  The prickly grass resembles at a distance, in colour and form, an overgrown bush of lavender; but the pedestrian and the horse both soon find that it is neither lavender nor grass, the blades consisting of sharp spikes which shoot out in all directions, offering real annoyance to men and horses.

On ascending a small sandhill about three P.M.  I perceived that I could not hope to reach the river in the direction I was pursuing.  Accordingly I turned to the left and, entering a rather extensive valley which was bounded on the south by the river-bergs at a distance of three or four miles, we encamped on the immediate bank of the Murray shortly before sunset.  There was little grass about the river for the ferruginous finely-grained sandstone formed still the riverbank, and was exactly similar to the arenaceous rock on the eastern coast.