From the river, should have absorbed the waters in passing, or
unless the extremely winding course should so protract and retard the
current of them as to cause a considerable time to elapse before a flood
in the upper parts could reach the lower. We considered ourselves as
extremely fortunate in having quitted our station of the 8th a day or
two before it was originally intended, as we should otherwise have been
in considerable danger.
The present height of the bank above the level of the stream is four
feet nine inches.
A singular instance of affection in one of the brute creation was this
day witnessed. About a week ago we killed a native dog, and threw his
body on a small bush: in returning past the same spot to-day, we found
the body removed three or four yards from the bush, and the female in a
dying state lying close beside it; she had apparently been there from
the day the dog was killed, being so weakened and emaciated as to be
unable to move on our approach. It was deemed mercy to despatch her.
A tomb similar in form to that which we observed yesterday being
discovered near our halting-place of this day, I caused it to be opened:
it is as a conical mound of earth about four feet high in the centre,
and nearly eight feet long in the longest part, exactly in the centre,
and deep in the ground: we at first thought we perceived the remains of
a human body, which had been originally placed upon sticks arranged
transversely, but now nearly decayed by time; nothing remained of what
we took for the body but a quantity of unctuous clayey matter. The whole
had the appearance of being not recent, the semicircular seats being now
nearly level with the rest of the ground, and the tomb itself overgrown
with weeds. The river fell about three inches in the course of the
night.
July 12. - It is impossible that any weather can be finer than that which
we are favoured with. For days together the sky is unobscured by even a
single cloud, and although the air is cold and sharp, yet the dryness of
the atmosphere amply repays us for any little inconvenience we sustain
from the cold. At nine, we again set forward on our return up the river,
and at three arrived on its banks, having performed about twelve miles.
The river had fallen about one foot in the course of the day. The horses
being much fatigued by the heavy travelling over the flats, and many of
them being very sorely galled in the back, I propose halting to-morrow
to refresh them. We were this day once more cheered by the sight of
rising ground; Macquarie's Range just appearing above the horizon,
distance about forty miles; and we felt that we were again about to
tread on secure and healthy land, with a chance of procuring some sort
of game, which would now be very acceptable, our diet being entirely
confined to pork and our morsel of bread.
