s, or pine trees.

WHITE LAKE.

From this I perceived a circular lake a little to our right and on riding
to it I found the water salt and of a very white colour. No trees grew on
the margin and the surrounding scene was so dreary that it resembled a
mountain-tarn. Two solitary ducks were upon it, apparently of a species
new to us, but this I could not ascertain, having had only my rifle with
me and, the cap missing fire, I lost even that chance of killing them.
The bed of the lake also consisted of a very white marl. A high
semicircular bank swept round the eastern shore; that opposite, or
towards the west being low and swampy. On that side I saw two natives at
a distance making the best of their way to the southward. We had this day
noticed some of their huts which were of a very different construction
from those of the aborigines in general, being large, circular, and made
of straight rods meeting at an upright pole in the centre; the outside
had been first covered with bark and grass and then entirely coated over
with clay. The fire appeared to have been made nearly in the centre; and
a hole at the top had been left as a chimney. The place seemed to have
been in use for years as a casual habitation.

BASKETWORK OF THE NATIVES.

In this hut the natives had left various articles such as jagged spears,
some of them set with flints; and an article of their manufacture which
we had not before seen, namely, bags of the gins, very neatly wrought,
apparently made of a tough small rush. Two of these also resembled
reticules and contained balls of resin, flints for the spearheads etc.
The iron bolt of a boat was likewise found in one of these huts. The
natives invariably fled at our approach, a circumstance to be regretted
perhaps on account of the nomenclature of my map; but otherwise their
flight was preferable to the noisy familiarity of the natives of the
Darling, perplexing us between their brands of defiance and treacherous
invitations to dance. Indeed the two regions were as different in
character as the manners of their respective inhabitants. Instead of
salsolaceous deserts and mesenbryanthemum we now found a variety of
everything most interesting in a newly discovered country. Every day we
passed over land which for natural fertility and beauty could scarcely be
surpassed; over streams of unfailing abundance and plains covered with
the richest pasturage. Stately trees and majestic mountains adorned the
ever-vary