s more stunted, consisting principally of a prickly bush,
mingled with coarse brown grass. During the whole time of our ramble, we
saw only three kangaroos, and five emus; and in some parts of the tall
scrub were wallaby tracks.")

Descending, we found the party left below in the dry bed of a watercourse
had failed in their endeavour to procure water by digging; we, therefore,
as we supposed, had no resource but to return, exhausted as we were, to
the brackish water-pools we had seen in the Chapman or Greenough.

NATIVE WELL AND BURIAL PLACE.

Happily, however, our dog discovered a deep hole under a drooping gum,
which proved to be a native well, and after clearing and digging deeper,
afforded our thirst relief. The soil through which this well was sunk was
a light alluvial deposit, based on sand six feet below the surface.
Numerous native paths and deep holes, from which the warran root had been
extracted, encircle this spot; some neighbouring huts of a superior
structure gave us snug quarters for the night; Wizard Peak bearing South
50 seconds East about a mile distant.

At break of dawn we resumed our exploration. The morning was dull and
cloudy, thermometer 59 degrees; on the previous day its greatest height
had been 85 degrees. Two miles from our bivouac, we fell in with a recent
native grave--a circular pit three yards in diameter, filled within a
foot of the surface with sand, carefully smoothed over. Small sticks,
some with red horizontal marks painted on them, and others scraped, with
the shavings tastefully twisted round, ornamented the edge of the grave;
a large semicircular fence fronted the south-east side; and the
neighbourhood bore evidence, in the shape of several destroyed huts, of
its having been deserted by the companions of the dead. After walking at
least five miles, we again made the Chapman or Greenough, above a mile
south of the point at which we before met it, and pursuing its usual
course between South and South-South-West. The bed was still dry sand,
but we found a small hole of brackish water in a hollow. Crossing, we
continued our west direction, and were surprised to find ourselves again
on the river; a line of red cliffs thirty feet high, forming the south
bend, had changed its course to the northward. We subsequently again
crossed two dry parts of it; from an elevation on the South-West side of
the last, Mount Fairfax bore North 50 degrees East and Wizard Peak South
58 degrees East.