m up in the soil as the seed (a very small pea) was not ripe.

(*Footnote. Trigonella suavissima, Lindley manuscripts; caulibus
porstratis, foliolis obcordatis cum dente interjecto subdentatis subtus
pilosiusculis, stipulis semisagittatis aristato-dentatis trinerviis,
umbellis paucifloris sessilibus, leguminibus falcatis reticulatis
glabris.)

Finding that the minor river-course which had been at one time within
half a mile of the Darling was again receding from that river, so that
when I wished to encamp I saw no appearance of it within six miles, and
that no more water could be seen in the dry channel, I crossed over and
made for the Darling in a west-south-west direction.

OLD CANOE. DRY STATE OF THE COUNTRY.

Exactly where the carts passed the dry channel a native's fishing canoe,
complete with the small oar or spear and two little cords, lay in the dry
and grassy bed of this quondam river where now we were likely to pass the
night without finding water.* The intervening plain became very soft and
distressing to the draught animals, and we were compelled to encamp on
the edge of a scrub which bounded it, and at a distance of about four
miles from the Darling. This was a long way to send our cattle, but the
observance of our usual custom seemed preferable upon the whole, even in
this extreme case, to passing the night without water. The sun was just
setting when oxen and horses were driven towards the west in quest of the
Darling, our only and never-failing resource at that time. Magnetic
variation 7 degrees 8 minutes 15 seconds East.

(*Footnote. Large shells of the Unio genus projected from the hard and
grassy surface, which had evidently been in the state of mud for a
sufficient time to admit of their growth.)

DANGER AND DIFFICULTY OF WATCHING THE CATTLE ON THE RIVERBANKS.

July 2.

The men who returned with water for the camp last evening had obtained it
at a lagoon short of the river, and where a large tribe of natives were
seated by their fires. Another party of our men had driven the cattle to
the river itself, for on its banks alone could any tolerable grass be
found. I was therefore apprehensive that the natives would molest the
cattle, when so far from our camp, and I accordingly sent six men armed
to watch them. They returned about eleven o'clock this morning with all
the cattle except one bullock; and as the drivers had been closely
followed by the natives from daybreak it was then supposed that