stringy bark. The woods astonished my native companion Yuranigh; who
remarked that they were trees belonging to the sea coast at Sydney. But
deep rocky ravines prevented me from exploring the country, in the
direction in which I should have expected to find the river. At length,
we approached a valley, in which was a deep channel with rocky banks; but
quite dry, and very sandy. It ran to the southward; in which direction I
turned with it, to follow it to its junction with the main river; but it
pursued a very tortuous course, and our time did not admit of my going
far enough that day, and I returned to the camp, resolved to extend this
interesting search on a greater scale subsequently. I had seen, from the
furthest point I reached, that the same table land to the southward,
extended west; and it therefore appeared to me probable that the river
would be found at its base. In the evening we heard, at a short distance
from our camp, the songs of females or children; as if the overflowing of
their animal spirits. I had seen their smoke in a part of the range I
passed this day, to which I feared they had fled on our approach, hearing
our guns, and in terror of strangers. I was, therefore, glad to find that
they had no longer any dread of us, and had returned to THEIR home, the
river bank. These people had no clothing,--the mercury stood at 19° and
20° F.; the means of subsistence open to them, had been scarcely enough
to have kept white men alive, even with the aid of their guns. Yet, under
such circumstances, and with such strange visitors so close to them,
these human beings were so contented and happy, that the overflowings of
their hearts were poured forth in song! Such is human nature in a wild
state. Their happiness was not such as we could envy; on the contrary, I
was so solicitous that we should not disturb it, that, much as I wished
to learn the original name of this interior river, and something about
its course, I forbade any of the party from taking any notice of these,
its original inhabitants. Our last intercourse with the natives, had also
taught me to bear ever in mind aesop's fable of the camel. Thermometer,