We had hardly arranged our bivouac, when we heard a most melancholy howling over an earthen bank directly opposite to us, and saw seven black heads slowly advancing towards us.  I therefore sent Mr. Stuart to meet the party and bring them up.  The group consisted of a very old blind man, led by a younger one, and five women.  They all wept most bitterly, and the women uttered low melancholy sounds, but we made them sit down and managed to allay their fears.  It is impossible to say how old the man was, but his hair was white as snow, and he had one foot in the grave.

These poor creatures must have observed us coming, and being helpless, had I suppose thought it better to come forward, for they had their huts immediately on the other side of the bank over which they ventured.  We gave the old man a great coat, as the most useful present, and he seemed delighted with it.  I saw that it was hopeless to expect any information from this timid party, so I made no objection to their leaving us after staying for about half an hour.  Our latitude here, by an altitude of Jupiter, was 27 degrees 47 minutes S.; our longitude by account 141 degrees 51 minutes E.

The plains we had crossed during the day were very extensive, stretching from the north-west, to the south-east, like an open sea.  They were thinly scattered over with box-trees, and comprised hundreds of thousands of acres of flooded grassy land.  It is worthy of remark that none of these plains existed to the south of the creek, in which quarter the country was very barren, neither were there any native paths.  We were at this time in too low a position to see any of the mountain ranges of which I have spoken.  As the old native with the boughs had told us, the creek led us to the southward of east, and consequently away from them, and I feared that his further information would prove correct, and that we should soon arrive at its commencement.

The morning of the 3rd of November was as cloudy as the night of the 2nd had been, during which it blew violently from the N.W., and a few heat-drops fell, but without effect on the temperature.  One of the horses got bogged in attempting to drink, and Mack’s illness made it nine before we mounted and resumed our journey up the creek, on a N.N.E. course, but it gradually came round to north.  At six miles we crossed the small and sandy bed of a creek coming from the stony plains to the south, and beneath a tree, near two huts, observed a large oval stone.  It was embedded in the ground, and was evidently used by the natives for pounding seeds.  We now proceeded along a broad native path towards some gum-trees, having stony undulating hills upon our right.  Underneath the trees there was a fine deep pool in the channel of the creek, which had again assumed something of its original shape; but as we were in an immense hollow or bowl, and the view was very limited, I branched off to the hills, then not more than half a mile distant.  From their summit the country