making the slightest noise, get a drink, and then, giving a snort of derision to let us know, off they go at a gallop.  They run in mobs of twos and threes; so now we have systematically to watch for, catch, and hobble them.  I set a watch during the night, and as they came, they were hobbled and put down through the north side of the pass.  They could not get back past the camp without the watchman both hearing and seeing them; for it was now fine moonlight the greater part of the night.  We had ten or twelve horses, but only two came to-night for water, and these got away before we could catch them, as two of the party let them drink before catching them.  None came in the day, and only two the next night; these we caught, hobbled, and put with the others, which were always trying to get back past the camp, so to-night I had a horse saddled to be sure of catching any that came, and keeping those we had.  During my watch, the second, several horses tried to pass the camp.  I drove them back twice, and had no more trouble with them; but in the morning, when we came to muster them, every hoof was gone.  Of course nobody had let them go!  Every other member of the party informed me that they were ready to take their dying oaths that the horses never got away in their watches, and that neither of them had any trouble whatever in driving them back, etc.; so I could only conclude that I must have let them all go myself, because, as they were gone, and nobody else let them go, why, of course, I suppose I must.  After breakfast Mr. Tietkens went to try to recover them, but soon returned, informing me he had met a number of natives at the smoke-house, who appeared very peaceably inclined, and who were on their road down through the pass.  This was rather unusual; previous to our conflict they had never come near us, and since that, they had mostly given us a wide berth, and seemed to prefer being out of the reach of our rifles than otherwise.  They soon appeared, although they kept away on the east side of the creek.  They then shouted, and when I cooeyed and beckoned them to approach, they sat down in a row.  I may here remark that the word cooey, as representing the cry of all Australian aborigines, belonged originally to only one tribe or region, but it has been carried about by whites from tribe to tribe, and is used by the civilised and semi-civilised races; but wild natives who have never seen whites use no such cry.  There were thirteen of these men.  Mr. Tietkens and I went over to them, and we had quite a friendly conference.  Their leader was an individual of a very uncertain age—­he might have been forty, or he might have been eighty (in the shade). (This was written some time before the “Mikado” appeared.—­E.G.) His head was nearly bald on the crown, but some long grizzly locks depended below the bald patch.