better day's pheasant shooting in any
preserve in England; and I may here remark that North-Western Australia
is as good a country for sport in the shooting way as I am acquainted
with; whilst for every kind of sport except wild-fowl shooting the
southern part of Australia is the worst country in the world. My bag
being full, and my companions very hungry, I had no excuse for staying
longer away from them, and therefore returned, although very loth to
leave such beautiful scenery and such excellent sport.

FERTILE COUNTRY DESCRIED.

In the interval between the showers, and whilst the men were trying to
kindle a fire, I ascended a sandstone range under the shelter of some
rocks near the summit of which we were encamped; from this elevated
position I saw a far better country to the south of us than any we had
yet traversed; and the prospect was so cheering in this direction that I
felt assured, when it was once gained with the horses, we should be able
to travel on with comparative rapidity and facility.

NATIVE HAUNTS.

Having emptied my bag I started again to commence the exploration of the
valley we were in. It sloped first in a north-easterly and then in a
nearly easterly direction; the river that ran through it was in some
places almost dry, or was rather a chain of large ponds than a river,
several of these ponds being more than a hundred yards across. I followed
the valley down for about five miles in the direction of Prince Regent's
River and found to my surprise that this part was by no means thinly
inhabited by natives; still, as none of the traces I had yet seen were
very recent, I trusted that we should not fall in with any considerable
body.

TRACES OF NATIVES.

At length however I came upon a spot which a number of them appeared to
have quitted only an hour or two before, and where they had been sitting
under a large tree at the edge of one of these ponds; their recent fire
had been first slaked with water and sand then thrown over it. I knew
therefore that they had been disturbed, and most probably by my gun; but
not before they had made a hearty meal of roasted fresh-water mussels
(unios) and nuts of a kind which grew on a large shady tree in pods, like
a tamarind pod, the kernel being contained in a shell, of which each pod
held several, and the fruit tasting exactly like filberts. The spot was
admirably suited for their purpose; their bark beds were placed under the
shelter of this tree and only