dainties that the bare recollection of them made our mouths water; but the necessities of the moment would not permit me for more than a few minutes to indulge in these speculations, and we turned therefore from seductive travels of the imagination to the more stringent ones of reality.

HEAVY LOADS CARRIED BY THE MEN.

I now entreated the men to disencumber themselves of a portion of the loads which they were attempting to carry. Urged by a miscalculating desire of gain, when the boats were abandoned they had laid hands upon canvas and what else they thought would sell at Perth, and some of them appeared to be resolved rather to risk their lives than the booty they were bending under. The more tractable threw away the articles I told them to get rid of; but neither entreaties nor menaces prevailed with the others.

For the next three miles we still followed the native path which continued to run south by east. The whole of this distance was over open sandy downs, abounding in kangaroos; but we now suddenly emerged into a rich limestone country of gently sloping hills and valleys, affording, even at this season of the year, fair feed for sheep or cattle, and we found springs of water at every few hundred yards, generally situated at the edge of a large clump of trees.

After having for some time rested here I quitted the native path, which trended too much to the eastward, and, leaving also the direction of the limestone country which ran inland, we continued a south by east course over a gravelly tableland in places covered with beds of clay on which rested ponds of water. The country here was perfectly open, with clumps of trees to the eastward. Emus and kangaroos were wandering about the plains.

DIFFICULT SCRUB.

Two miles more brought us to an almost impenetrable belt of scrub which lay east and west, directly athwart our path, so that we were obliged to face it; and in two hours and a half I had forced my way through it. The others followed, slowly emerging from the bush after me and, as we were all totally exhausted, as well as dreadfully torn and bruised, we halted at its edge for the night, and lighting our fires lay down to court that repose we had so fairly earned. We had however only walked fifteen and a half miles today.

April 4.

I again this morning used every effort to induce some more of the men to abandon a portion of their loads. I represented to them their weak state, the small supply of provisions they had with them, and the difficulty they already found in keeping up with the party; but all these arguments and every other I could make use of were unavailing; the tenacity with which they clung to a worthless property, even at the risk of their lives, is almost incredible, and it is to be borne in mind that this property was not their own, but what they had taken from the wreck of the boats. Did I even induce one to throw anything away another avaricious fellow would pick it up; and their thoughts and conversation, instead of running upon making the best of their way home and saying their lives, consisted in conjectures as to what they would realize from their ill-gotten and embarrassing booty.

SUPERIOR NATIVE PATH AND WELLS.

The course I pursued was one of 180 degrees and we soon fell in with the native path which we had quitted yesterday; but it now became wide, well beaten, and differing altogether by its permanent character from any I had seen in the southern portion of this continent. For the first five miles we traversed scrubby stony hills, thickly wooded with banksia trees; but the limestone here again cropped out and we entered a very fertile valley, running north and south and terminating in a larger one which drained the country from east to west. This valley is remarkable as containing one Xanthorrhoea (grass-tree) being the farthest point to the north at which I have found this tree. In it also was a gigantic ant's nest, being the most southerly one I had yet seen. All these circumstances convinced me that we were about to enter a very interesting region. And as we wound along the native path my wonder augmented; the path increased in breadth and in its beaten appearance, whilst along the side of it we found frequent wells, some of which were ten and twelve feet deep and were altogether executed in a superior manner.

NATIVE WARRAN GROUND. PLAINS ABOUNDING IN THE WARRAN PLANT.

We now crossed the dry bed of a stream and from that emerged upon a tract of light fertile soil, quite overrun with warran plants,* the root of which is a favourite article of food with the natives. This was the first time we had yet seen this plant on our journey, and now for three and a half consecutive miles we traversed a fertile piece of land literally perforated with the holes the natives had made to dig this root; indeed we could with difficulty walk across it on that account, whilst this tract extended east and west as far as we could see.

(*Footnote. The Warran in a species of Dioscorea, a sort of yam like the sweet potato. It is known by the same name both on the east and west side of the continent.)

It was now evident that we had entered the most thickly-populated district of Australia that I had yet observed, and moreover one which must have been inhabited for a long series of years, for more had here been done to secure a provision from the ground by hard manual labour than I could have believed it in the power of uncivilised man to accomplish. After crossing a low limestone range we came down upon another equally fertile warran ground, bounded eastward by a high range of rocky limestone hills, luxuriantly grassed, and westward by a low range of similar formation. The native path about two miles further on crossed this latter range, and we found ourselves in a grassy valley, about four miles wide, bounded seawards by sandy downs. Along its centre lay a chain of reedy freshwater swamps, and native paths ran in from all quarters to one main line of communication leading to the southward.

DANGERS OF DELAY.

In these swamps we first found the yunjid, or flag (a species of typha) and the sow-thistle of the southern districts; one we came to was a thick tea-tree swamp, extremely picturesque, and producing abundance of these plants, some of which were collected by the men to eat in the evening. To my surprise Mr. Walker here came up to me and asked if I did not think it would be better to halt for a day or two at places of this kind to allow the men to refresh themselves. The idea of men halting and wasting their strength and energies in searching for native food whilst they had so fearful a journey before them, and no supplies, appeared to me to be preposterous in the extreme: to obtain a sufficiency of food, even for a native, requires in Australia a great degree of skill and knowledge of the productions of the country; but for a European, utterly unaccustomed to this species of labour and totally unacquainted with the productions of the land, to obtain enough to support life for any period, whilst at the same time he has to search for water, is quite impossible. Even Kaiber, from his ignorance of the roots, declared that he should starve in this country. I saw therefore that did I adopt the proposed plan of travelling only a few miles a day, and occasionally halting for a day or two to refresh ourselves upon some thistles and periwinkles, I should infallibly sacrifice the lives of the whole party; and under this impression I declined to accede to the suggestion. Amongst indolent and worn-out men however it subsequently became an extremely popular notion, and, as future events clearly showed, a fatally erroneous one. I from the first opposed it both by my words and example; and in this instance, as soon as I conceived that the men were sufficiently rested, I moved on.

PICTURESQUE ESTUARY.

After travelling another mile we found ourselves at the head of a large and picturesque estuary which lay north and south; the native path ran along its shores, which were of great richness and