My first impulse was to return to the ship; but at the earnest request of
Mr. Gore, who felt somewhat revived after I washed his hand in brandy and
tied it up, we continued; but the utter silence and grave demeanour of
all showed that each was occupied with thoughts of the danger some of us
had escaped of being ushered unprepared into the presence of our Maker. A
rustling in the bushes on the bank, as we wound round an island of some
size at the extremity of this nearly fatal reach, broke the reverie in
which we were indulging. Fancying it was a kangaroo, I fired at the spot,
when a half-grown wild dog came rolling down into the water. It was of a
dark brown colour, with large patches of white, differing from any of the
kind I had ever seen before.

Above this island we pursued a general West-South-West direction; but to
our great mortification there was water for the yawl only four miles
further. In the gig I was able to ascend nearly two miles higher in a
South-West by South direction. Our position was then nine miles
South-West 1/2 West from the mouth in a direct line; but thrice that
distance by the meandering course of the inlet through this vast level.
The width had decreased from three hundred yards at the entrance to
scarcely one hundred, and the depth from two fathoms to a quarter. The
banks were, at intervals fringed with mangroves, the country behind being
very open plains, with patches of dwarf gums scattered here and there.

DUCKS, PIGEONS, ETC.

The brown whistling wood-ducks were in great abundance at the yawl's
furthest; and in three shots I bagged twenty. The native companions were
also numerous, of two kinds, one with black on the back, and the other,
which kept more on the plain, of a blue or slate colour. Pigeons, too,