that the passage was clear, and that we should shoot down it without interruption; but in this I was disappointed.  The boat struck with the fore-part of her keel on a sunken rock, and, swinging round as it were on a pivot, presented her bow to the rapid, while the skiff floated away into the strength of it.  We had every reason to anticipate the loss of our whale-boat, whose build was so light, that had her side struck the rock, instead of her keel, she would have been laid open from stem to stern.  As it was, however, she remained fixed in her position, and it only remained for us to get her off the best way we could.  I saw that this could only be done by sending two of the men with a rope to the upper rock, and getting the boat, by that means, into the still water, between that and the lower one.  We should then have time to examine the channels, and to decide as to that down which it would be safest to proceed.  My only fear was, that the loss of the weight of the two men would lighten the boat so much, that she would be precipitated down the rapid without my having any command over her; but it happened otherwise.  We succeeded in getting her into the still water, and ultimately took her down the channel under the right bank, without her sustaining any injury.  A few miles below this rapid the river took a singular bend, and we found, after pulling several miles, that we were within a stone’s throw of a part of the stream we had already sailed down.

The four natives joined us in the camp, and assisted the men at their various occupations.  The consequence was, that they were treated with more than ordinary kindness; and Fraser, for his part, in order to gratify these favoured guests, made great havoc among the feathered race.  He returned after a short ramble with a variety of game, among which were a crow, a kite, and a laughing jackass (alcedo gigantea,) a species of king’s-fisher, a singular bird, found in every part of Australia.  Its cry, which resembles a chorus of wild spirits, is apt to startle the traveller who may be in jeopardy, as if laughing and mocking at his misfortune.  It is a harmless bird, and I seldom allowed them to be destroyed, as they were sure to rouse us with the earliest dawn.  To this list of Fraser’s spoils, a duck and a tough old cockatoo, must be added.  The whole of these our friends threw on the fire without the delay of plucking, and snatched them from that consuming element ere they were well singed, and devoured them with uncommon relish.

Deserted native village.

We pitched our tents upon a flat of good and tenacious soil.  A brush, in which there was a new species of melaleuca, backed it, in the thickest part of which we found a deserted native village.  The spot was evidently chosen for shelter.  The huts were large and long, all facing the same point of the compass, and in every way resembling the huts occupied by the natives of the Darling.  Large flocks of whistling