ed halting. The greater part of our way was
through deep sandy cypress brushes, so that the cattle had a heavy pull
of it. We reached our destination at 1 p.m., where we found Mr. Eyre,
with eight or nine natives, all, who were then in the neighbourhood.

The back-water of the Murray was fast flowing into the lake, which
already presented a broad expanse of water to the eye. It was covered
with wild fowl of various kinds, and there were several patches of reeds
in which they were feeding.

As I purposed stopping for a day or two, to rest the bullocks, I directed
Mr. Poole to survey the lake, whilst I undertook to lay down the creek or
channel connecting it with the river, in which service I enlisted Mr.
Hawker, who had formerly been on the survey, and whose name I gave to the
creek on the completion of our work.

Lake Bonney is a shallow sandy basin, which is annually filled by the
Murray; and as it rises, so, to a certain extent, it falls with the
river, until at length, being left very shallow, it is soon dried up. The
Hawker being too small to discharge the water equally with the fall of
the river, has a current in it after the river has lowered considerably,
for which reason I thought, when I passed it on my second expedition,
that it had been a tributary; but such is not the case--Lake Bonney
receiving no water save from the Murray. To the south of it, or next the
river, the ground is low, grassy, and wooded; but on every other side the
lake is confined by a low sand hill, of about fifteen feet in height,
behind which there is a barren flat covered with salsolaceous plants, and
exactly resembling a dry sea marsh, if I may say so. The more distant
interior is alternate brush and plain, and exceedingly barren. The day
after we arrived, however, Tenbury, with the dogs, killed four large
kangaroos and as he saw many more, it is to be presumed that thereabouts
they are pretty numerous. The lake is ten miles in circumference.
Hawker's Creek, taking its windings, is nearly six in length. The
latitude of our camp was 34 degrees 13 minutes 42 seconds S.; its
longitude 140 degrees 26 minutes 16 seconds. On September 1st. the
thermometer, at 8 A. M. and at noon, stood at 48 degrees and 60 degrees
respectively; the barometer at 29.750, and the boiling point was 212
degrees nearly, thus indicating that we had risen but a few feet above
the level of the sea. We left Lake Bonney on the 3rd of September, and
crossing the bank of