demonstration of throwing it at us, they evinced a desire for the more
peaceable amusement of eating damper and fat bacon. A few of the natives
spoke a little English, having been for a short time in the settled
districts. At sunset they retired to the other side of the river, and all
appeared quiet when my watch commenced at 10.30; but at midnight I
detected a native crawling up amongst the thick grass about ten yards
from the back of the tents. He lay quiet till I almost turned him out of
his hiding-place with the muzzle of my gun, when he took to his heels,
but I did not consider it prudent either to fire at or capture him.

2nd November.

The natives being too numerous to allow any of the party leaving the camp
to examine the country around without incurring greater risk than seemed
prudent, we left our bivouac at 7.45 a.m. and steered north 170 degrees
east magnetic over sandy hills, covered with short scrub. After two hours
the country became nearly level, with small patches of swampy ground,
which would be very wet in the rainy season, but was at present quite
dry; the rising grounds were sand, covered with short scrub with a few
scattered banksia trees. At 5.40 p.m. struck the left bank of the stream
which has been considered to be the Arrowsmith River of Captain Grey,
though I have now some reason to doubt its identity. The banks of the
stream are sandstone and sand, and the channel scarcely three yards wide,
with a strip of grassy thicket twenty yards in width along the stream,
which is the only feed near the river, as the plain through which it runs
produces nothing but scrub and banksia with a few grass-trees. We
bivouacked a short distance below the spot where we first struck the
stream, which was still running.

3rd November.