but even the portion of them which met my view must have had a very considerable altitude.  I took a set of angles from this point but the mistiness of the day rendered it very unfit for my purpose.  Whilst I was thus occupied, we heard the cries and calls of a party of natives between us and the tents.  From the loudness and proximity of these I augured badly and therefore hurried my return; but we neither saw the natives themselves nor their tracks, and were quite in ignorance as to what had been their intentions.  Soon after sunset the weather cleared up a little, and the stars, which came peeping out, promised well for the next day.

Natives near the camp again.

March 21.

Although it had rained during the night and the sun this morning rose bright and clear the country was still impassable owing to the late continued torrents.  I therefore went out with a detachment for the purpose of exploring a route by which we could proceed the next day, as well as to define some more points in the country we were about to enter.  In the course of our walk we crossed the track of the natives we had heard yesterday.  Their party must have been large, for they approached to within about three hundred yards of the tents, leaving a trail as broad and large as was made by our ponies and party together.  I did not much like their hanging about us for so many days as I rather mistrusted their intentions; their object however appeared to have been to examine the ponies, for they had only come as far as the tethering ground and, after wandering about there a little, had again retired.  We were unfortunate in our search for a good line of country by which to proceed, but I made some important additions to my map.

Marsh and sandstone range.

March 22.

As fine weather had apparently set in again we this morning resumed our journey.  The poor ponies looked very weak and wretched when they were brought up to start, and we were all ragged, dirty, and worn out from the constant exposure to wind and rain; indeed our appearance was altogether very miserable on moving off, and our progress, too, very slow and fatiguing, both to ourselves and the horses, on account of the swampy nature of the ground; but we strenuously persevered until near noon, when I halted for breakfast at the foot of some lofty hills, at the base of which ran the stream which was giving us so much trouble.  As soon as we had despatched our scanty breakfast I tried with a party to find a passage across the marsh, but our search was in vain and, on examining the sandstone range on the other side of the stream, I found it so precipitous that our weak ponies could not possibly have clambered up it.

Native bridge.

Whilst on our return we found a native bridge, formed of a fallen tree, which rested against two others and was secured in its position by forked boughs.