pectful distance from the
bullocks, some of which had already crossed. At length they ventured over
and, on my going to meet them, they sat down about 200 yards from the
tents. The party consisted of four men and a boy, followed by seven women
and children who sat at a little distance behind.

MORTALITY AMONG THEM FROM SMALLPOX.

The men carried no spears and looked diminutive and simple; most of them
had had the smallpox, but the marks were not larger than pin heads. I
found they had either seen or heard of Captain Sturt's party for,
pointing to the sun, they showed me that six revolutions of that source
of heat had elapsed since the visit of others like us. Other gestures,
such as a reference to covering, and expressions of countenance, made
their indications of the lapse of time plain enough. It seemed to me that
the disease which it was understood had raged among them (probably from
the bad water) had almost depopulated the Darling, and that these people
were but the remains of a tribe. The females were numerous in proportion
to the males, and they were not at all secluded by the men, as in places
where the numerical proportions were different. All these natives (with
the exception of the boy) had lost the right front tooth. They had a very
singular mode of expressing surprise, making a curious short whistle by
joining the tongue and lips. The gins were hideous notwithstanding they
were rouged with red ochre, by way, no doubt, of setting off their
charms. I gave to one man a piece of my sword blade, and to another a
tomahawk, which he carefully wrapped in the paper in which I had kept it,
and he seemed much pleased with his present. They pointed to the west as
the general course of the river.

RESULTS OF THE JOURNEY.

The results of our journey thus far were, first, the survey of the Bogan,
nearly from its sources to its junction with the Darling. This I
considered no trifling addition to Australian geography; for the
knowledge of the actual course of a long river, however diminutive the
channel, may often determine to a great extent the character of the
country through which it passes. In the present instance it may be
remarked that, had Captain Sturt considered the course of this river when
he named the lower part of it New Year's Creek, the idea that the plains
which he saw to the southward of New Year's range formed the "channel of
a broad and rapid river" never could have occurred to him; for the basin
of t