Page:Diary of ten years.djvu/304

 286 It seems to be quite an event to kill a kangaroo, or an emu. Oposums (like cats), and bandicoots (like rats), and two or three other little animals, with their chance of bird, seem all their dependence. The Murray river men are much larger and fatter men than any others we have seen; perhaps from the greater quantity of fish got there. How oddly I have wandered from the subject commenced. But I followed the path that seemed straight before me, without looking whether I was straying or not. I had just returned last night from Perth, when Mr. Bull called in on his return from the expedition to Northam and the Williams river. They had a very pleasant excursion, but no less than eight bullocks died suddenly in the morning, from some unknown cause or other—apparently from apoplexy. The Governor, Mr. Roe, Mr. Norcott, with some police, pushed on for Doubtful Island Bay, or King George's Sound, as the case might be, and the rest of the party returned, some by York, some by Kelmscott, as they went. Mr. Bull, on the whole, seems rather disappointed in the general quality of the land. It is a sheep country, but little alluvial land for wheat. The fact is, his ground on the Swan River is so very good that every other place falls short when compared with it. Marshall McDermott has got a good grant there of 25,000 acres. The Hotham and the Williams appear to come from the east and south-east, and to unite their waters and form the principal part of the Murray River. Some natives were seen, but they ran off in great dismay, and some Swan River natives who accompanied them could not succeed in making themselves intelligible, or at all events in allaying their fears. One young woman appeared perfectly paralysed with fear, calling out that the horses were great dogs, and endeavouring to chide them back in the same manner as they speak to their dogs. An undulating country; the hills grassy; soil, light red sandy loam; trees, casuarina; rocks, whinstone, granite, and ironstone. Kangaroos and emus in abundance. I start