rling tribe.
Barren sands and the Eucalyptus dumosa.
Plants which grow on the sand and bind it down.
Fish caught.
Aspect of the country to the northward.
Strange natives from beyond the Murray.
They decamp during the night.
Reach the Darling and surprise a numerous tribe of natives.
Piper and his gin explain.
Search for the junction with the Murray.
Return by night.
Followed by the natives.
Horses take fright.
Break loose and run back.
Narrow escape of some men from natives.
Failure of their intended attack.
Different modes of interment.
Reduced appearance of the Darling.
Desert character of the country.
Rainy morning.
Return of the party.
Surprise the females of the tribe.
Junction of the Darling and Murray.
Effect of alternate floods there.

NEW AND REMARKABLE SHRUB.

May 27.

In the scrub adjoining our camp we found a new and remarkably beautiful
shrub bearing a fruit, the stone of which was very similar to that of the
quandang (Fusanus acuminatus) although there was no resemblance either in
the form of the tree or of the flower. This shrub was not unlike the
weeping willow in its growth, and the fruit, which grew at the
extremities of the drooping branches, had the shape of a pear and a black
ring at the broad end. The crop then on the tree was unripe, and was
probably a second one; the flower was also budding, and we hoped to see
the full blossom on our return. Only three or four of these trees were
seen, and they were all on the hill near our encampment. Here likewise
grew a new shrubby species of Xerotes, with hard rush-like leaves, but
allied to X. gracilis.*

(*Footnote. X. effusa, Lindley manuscripts; acaulis, foliis linearibus
longissimis semiteretibus margine scabris dorso striatis: apice dentato
tabescente, panicula mascula effusa abbreviata, bracteis acuminatis
scariosis pedicello brevioribus.)

DARLING TRIBE AGAIN.

We proceeded on our journey as usual, but had not gone far when we heard
the voices of a vast body of blacks following our track, shouting
prodigiously, and raising war cries. It now became necessary for me to
determine whether I was to allow the party under my charge to be
perpetually subject to be cut off in detail by waiting until these
natives had again actually attacked and slain some of my people, or
whether it was not my duty, in a war which not my party, but these
savages, had virtually commenced, to anticipate the intended blow. I was
at length convinced that, unle