torhynchus
Leachii) was shot; we passed several nests of the brush-turkey (Talegalla
Lathami, GOULD). Charley got a probably new species of bandicoot, with
longer ears than the common one, and with white paws. We distinguished,
during the rain, three different frogs, which made a very inharmonious
concert. The succinea-like shells were very abundant in the moist grass;
and a limnaea in the lagoon seemed to me to be a species different from
those I had observed in the Moreton Bay district, The thermometer at
sunset 62 degrees (in the water 68 degrees); at sunrise 52 degrees (in
the water 62 degrees).
On the 15th October, the wind changed during the afternoon to the
westward, and cleared the sky, and dried the ground very rapidly.
Oct. 17.--The ground was too heavy and boggy to permit us to start
yesterday; besides, three horses were absent, and could not be found.
Last night, Mr. Roper brought in three ducks and a pigeon, and was
joyfully welcomed by all hands. Charley had been insolent several times,
when I sent him out after the cattle, and, this morning, he even
threatened to shoot Mr. Gilbert. I immediately dismissed him from our
service, and took from him all the things which he held on condition of
stopping with us. The wind continued from the west and south-west.
Oct. 18.--Towards evening Charley came and begged my pardon. I told him
that he had particularly offended Mr. Gilbert, and that I could not think
of allowing him to stay, if Mr. Gilbert had the slightest objection to
it: he, therefore, addressed himself to Mr. Gilbert, and, with his
consent, Charley entered again into our service. John Murphy and Caleb,
the American negro, went to a creek, which Mr. Hodgson had first seen,
when out on a RECONNOISSANCE to the northward, in order to get some game.
John had been there twice before, and it was not four miles distant:
they, however, did not return, and, at nine o'clock at night, we heard
firing to the north-east. We answered by a similar signal, but they did
not come in. I sent Mr. Hodgson and Charley to bring them back. If they
had simply given the bridle to their horses, they would have brought them
back without delay; but probably both got bewildered.
The latitude of this lagoon, which I called Kent's Lagoon, after F. Kent,
Esq., is 26 degrees 42 minutes 30 seconds. We tried to obtain opossums,
during the clear moonlight night, but only caught the common rabbit-rat.
Our horses go right into the scr
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