f
interment, their object being probably the security of the graves from
floods. The tribe frequenting that neighbourhood consists of a very few
inoffensive individuals, less mischievous, as already observed, than any
we had seen on the banks of the Darling.

SALTNESS OF THE DARLING. THE RIVER SUPPORTED BY SPRINGS.

We were about to leave, at last, this extraordinary stream on which we
had sojourned so long, enjoying abundance of excellent water in the heart
of a desert country. From the sparkling transparency of this water, its
undiminished current, sustained without receiving any tributary
throughout a course of 660 miles, and especially from its being salt in
some places and fresh at others, it seems probable that the river, when
in that reduced state, is chiefly supported by springs. It would appear
that the saltness occurs in the greatest body of water where no current
was perceptible, and as this was excessive when the river was first
discovered, it may be attributed to saline springs, due to beds of
rock-salt in the sandstone or clay. The bed of the river is on an average
about sixty feet below the common surface of the country. To this depth
the soil generally consists of clay in which calcareous concretions and
selenite occur abundantly; but at some parts the clay, charged with iron,
forms a soft kind of rock in the bed or banks of the river. There are no
traces of watercourses on these level plains such as might be expected to
fall from the hills behind; though the latter contain hollows and
gullies, which must in wet seasons conduct water to the plains. The
distance of such heights from the river is seldom less than twelve miles;
and it would appear that the intervening country is of such an absorbent
nature that any water falling in torrents from the hills is imbibed by
the soft earth, or is received in the deep broad cracks which sear the
hollow parts, and in wet seasons must take up much water and retain it,
until either evaporated or sunk to lower levels. The water may thus be
absorbed and retained for a considerable time, or until it is carried by
slow drainage into the river, especially where the lower parts of such
plains are shut in by hills approaching the channel. Thus, where the
extremity of Dunlop's range shot forward into the wide level margin, we
found that the water had lost all taste of salt, a circumstance most
easily accounted for by supposing that springs, being more abundant there
from th