head of the salt-water branch of the East Alligator River.  We observed a great number of long conical fish and crab traps at the crossing place of the creek and in many of the tributary salt-water channels; they were made apparently of Flagellaria.  Here I took leave of our guides:  the leader of whom appeared to be “Apirk,” a young and slender, but an intelligent and most active man.  We now travelled again to the northward, following the outline of the rocky ridges at the right side of the creek; and, having again entered upon the plains, we encamped at a very broad, shallow, sedgy, boggy lagoon, surrounded with Typhas, and crowded with ducks and geese, of which Brown shot four.  It was about four miles east of our yesterday’s camp.  Numerous flocks of the Harlequin pigeon (Peristera histrionica, Gould) came to drink at this lagoon; and innumerable geese alighted towards the evening on the plain, and fed on the young grass, moistened by the rain.  The number of kites was in a fair proportion to that of the geese; and dozens of them were watching us from the neighbouring trees.

We found a new Eugenia, a tree of rather stunted growth, with broad opposite leaves, and fruit of the size of an apple, of a delicate rose-colour, and when ripe, a most delicious refreshment during a hot day.  We had frequently met with this tree on sandstone ridges, and in sandy soils, but had never before found it in fruit.  The day was distressingly hot, but we had several light showers during the afternoon.

Dec. 7.—­“Apirk,” with seven other natives, visited us again in the morning, and it seemed that they had examined the camp we had last left.  They gave us to understand that we could travel safely to the northward, without meeting any other creek.  Apirk carried a little pointed stick, and a flat piece of wood with a small hole in it, for the purpose of obtaining fire.  I directed my course to a distant mountain, due north from the camp, and travelled seven or eight miles over a large plain, which was composed of a rich dark soil, and clothed with a great variety of excellent grasses.  We saw many columns of dust raised by whirlwinds; and again mistook them for the smoke of so many fires of the natives.  But we soon observed that they moved in a certain direction, and that new columns rose as those already formed drew off; and when we came nearer, and passed between them, it seemed as if the giant spirits of the plain were holding a stately corrobori around us.  They originated on a patch of ground divested of its vegetation by a late fire.  There was a belt of forest to the northward, and the current of the sea-breeze coming up the valley of the river from N.N.W. seemed to eddy round the forest, and to whirl the unsheltered loose earth into the air.