Page:Journals of Several Expeditions Made in Western Australia.djvu/215

 MR. BUSSELL'S JOURNAL of an Expedition to the River Vasse, from the Blackwood.

We left the Blackwood at the rapids, and for some time traversed a country alternately rocky and sandy, with occasional patches of good soil, always however thickly wooded with mahogany. The first change that presented itself was a thicket of young trees of the eycaliptus kind; what these species might be, I could not tell, though I should conclude, the same as constitutes the timber of the neighbouring forests; they grew about four feet high, and had the appearance of a nursery; the soil was a white earth. We had already put up one kangaroo, and two rats, and to these our dogs had given chase, but without success. We had been for some time in want of water, when we came upon a small torrent, flowing east; this, on account of the arid aspect of the country, we had passed, and the appearance of the sky, which threatened rain, were inducements, sufficient to determine me on an early bivouac; we therefore halted for the night, at a quarter to six.

While the men were preparing shelter, I walked in an easterly direction, to ascertain the cause of a break that showed itself in the wood, and came on a stream, flowing at right angles to the one on which we were settled, and apparently the receptacle of its waters; south, inclining to east, was the course of this rivulet; it was therefore a tributary of the Blackwood

The night proved as we had anticipated,—wet,