Page:Journals of Several Expeditions Made in Western Australia.djvu/86

 to General Dyott, the Colonel of the 63rd regiment,) rising abruptly and almost perpendicularly from their southern base, and presenting a wall-like barrier to the river. They had a rich and verdant appearance, and were clothed in grass to their summit, and moderately wooded with gum trees. At this spot we heard the natives, whose traces we had been following this morning, hailing each other at a great distance: we were fortunate enough this night in finding shelter from the rain, which was pouring down in torrents, under a shelving rock; it was of considerable size, having the shape and appearance of a thatched roof of a cottage. In the neighbourhood of our bivouac, and for some distance around, were large masses of granite; in one of these we discovered a cavern, the interior being arched, and resembling somewhat in appearance an ancient ruin. On one side was rudely carved what was evidently intended to represent an image of the sun, it being a circular figure about eighteen inches in diameter, emitting rays from its left side, and having without the circle, lines meeting each other nearly at right angles: close to this representation of the sun, were the impression of an arm and several hands. This spot appeared to us to be used by the natives as a place of worship. Our walk to-day for upwards of eighteen miles up the left bank of the river, led us over a country well clothed with grass, apparently of the same description as that on the banks of the Swan. It had little underwood, and was lightly timbered with a species of gum tree, leaving a rough stringy bark of a light brown colour, which appeared to us to be a different kind from any we had observed on the Swan. The flats bordering the river being mostly flooded, we were unable to judge of their general character.