Page:Journals of Several Expeditions Made in Western Australia.djvu/142

 us from Augusta were finished. From the 6th to the evening of the 8th, we had nothing to eat but the Hottentot fig, and a sturgeon which we killed with a ramrod. We got to Port Leschenault on the eighth day, but lost a day and a half in trying to head the river, and in making a raft, on which we crossed, and then picked out some doll and Indian corn from the remains of the provisions left there. Between this and the Murray we shot some birds. We crossed the Vasse by fording, near the mouth, under the guidance of two natives. Between Augusta and Cape Naturaliste we only shot some sea birds. We found great quantities of periwinkles, of a large size, which we boiled, and found excellent eating; we did not find a single oyster; we did not see any kangaroos, but heard numbers in the night, and found numerous traces of them; we did not see any remarkable bird or beast. Parts of the wreck of the Cumberland were scattered along the whole coast. Shortly after we had rounded Cape Naturaliste, we were led, as above-described, by the single native, to a spring in a swamp, which had a very bad taste, and physiced all our party; it had a milky brownish colour, and tasted just like Thompson's mineral water at Cheltenham. From this spring to within three miles of Port Leschenault we could not get a drop of water. On reference to the chart, we have no doubt that this spring is the mineral spring marked down in the chart just inside of Cape Naturaliste.