Page:Journals of Several Expeditions Made in Western Australia.djvu/96

 we altered our course to it, as we considered it a good point to make on our return as I thought it to be a distant hill I had seen from Mount Bakewell. Three miles from this valley where there is tolerable soil, we arrived at extensive downs of a breadth, at the part we crossed, of six miles; we here saw numerous herds of kangaroos, one of which we killed. In the middle of one of these downs, we found two pools of fresh water, around which were several traces of natives; we also observed in them some small fish, and a musk duck, which latter circumstance seemed to indicate the existence of water all the year round. On leaving these we penetrated the angle of a deep wood of gum and tea trees, and pursued our course up a long aclivity. At the distance of fourteen miles from our bivouac, I came to a superior description of country; it had a fertile appearance, the soil being a red loam, well clothed with grass, the trees consisting of the gum, wattle and sandal wood. Crossing a mile of this description of country, we ascended the peaked hill towards which our course had been directed, and which was not of any considerable altitude; from the summit we observed a sheet of water bearing N. 74° W., around which were seven native fires; eighteen miles N.N.E. we imagined that we perceived Mount Caroline. We calculated there might be from one to two thousand acres of very fair arable and pasture land in the vicinity of this hill; the extent of our journey to-day was fifteen miles, the general course of which was S.S.W.

November 2nd. — Having prepared every thing for our return, and some of our party their arms, in case of rencontres with the natives, whose fires we had seen yesterday, we proceeded, soon after sun-