is river in
the season of the floods, as our crossing it then would have been utterly
impossible.

APPROACH OF NATIVES TO THE RIVER.

But my reveries were soon disturbed by hearing the call of a native from
the opposite bank, and I roused up poor Kaiber from his sleep that he
might ascertain what was going on upon the other side. His quick eyes
soon detected natives moving about amongst the bushes; but on farther
examination he ascertained that there was only one man, who walked as if
he had been wounded, the rest of the party being made up of women and
children, who were digging for roots. They were quite unconscious of our
presence, and we lay snugly behind a bush, watching all their movements.
As soon as they had dug a sufficient quantity of roots for their purpose
they descended to the bed of the river and walked up to a pool about one
hundred yards above our position, where they all drank and then sat down
to cook their roots. I ordered the men to keep themselves as quiet as
possible so that we in no way disturbed these poor creatures; and when at
length the party moved off we passed them in a diagonal direction so as
to give them an opportunity of seeing us without frightening them. When
first we emerged into view they began to run away; but when they saw that
we still moved steadily on without noticing them they were no longer
alarmed, but stood still, gazing at us with the greatest wonder and
amazement; the youngest children standing behind their mothers, peeping
cautiously out at us; and many a strange thought must have passed through
the breasts of these natives as they saw us wind in regular order up the
opposite hill. This tribe was the most northern one that I had seen wear
the kangaroo-skin cloak.

Another mile and a half in a south by east direction brought us to a low
range to the south of this river, which I named the Arrowsmith River
after Mr. John Arrowsmith, the distinguished geographer. From this range
we had a fine view of the rich valleys drained by this important stream.

MOUNT HORNER.

These valleys ran nearly north and south between the interior range and
the sandy limestone range parallel to the coast on which we now were; but
the river must also, of course, from its magnitude, penetrate the
interior range, which was only distant about sixteen miles from us. A
very remarkable peak in the latter, which bore east-north-east from this
point, I named Mount Horner, after my friend Leonard Horn