t only pleasing, but instructive. We
found that the individuals of a tribe partook of one general character,
and that the whole of the tribe were either decidedly quiet, or as
decidedly disorderly. The whole of the blacks left us when we started,
but we had not gone very far, when the individual I have described
brought his family, consisting of about fifteen persons. We were going
down a part of the river in which there was a very slight fall. The
natives were posted under some blue-gum trees, upon the right bank, and
there was a broad shoal of sand immediately to our left. They walked
over to this shoal, to receive some little presents, but did not follow
when we continued our journey.
TAKE BEARINGS.
During the whole of the day the river ran to the N.W. We stopped for
the night under some cliffs, similar to those we had already passed,
but somewhat higher. From their summit, mountains were visible to the
N.W., but at a great distance from us. I doubted not that they were at
the head of the southern gulfs; or of one of them, at all events. Our
observations placed us in 34 degrees 08 minutes south of lat., and in
long. 139 degrees 41 minutes 15 seconds; we were consequently nearly
seventy miles from Spencer's Gulf, in a direct line, and I should have
given that as the distance the hills appeared to be from us. They bore
as follows:--
Lofty round mountain, S. 127 degrees W.
Mountain scarcely visible, S. 128 degrees W.
Northern extremity of a broken range, S. 102 degrees W.
Southern extremity scarcely visible, S. 58 degrees W.
The country between the river and these ranges appeared to be very low,
and darkly wooded: that to the N.E. was more open. The summit of the
cliff did not form any table-land, but it dipped almost immediately to
the westward, and the country, although, as I have already remarked, it
was depressed, and undulated.
I walked to some distance from the river, across a valley, and started
several kangaroos; but I was quite alone, and could not, therefore,
secure one of them. Had the dogs been near, we should have had a fine
feast. The soil of the interior still continued sandy, but there was a
kind of short grass mixed with the salsolaceous plants upon it, that
indicated, as I thought, a change for the better in the vegetation; and
the circumstance of there being kangaroos in the valleys to the
westward was also a favourable sign.
FEAST ON A TORTOISE.
Beneath the cliffs hereabouts,
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