Page:Tracks of McKinlay and party across Australia.djvu/120

 supplied requisite of Australia, is abundant. The lakes seem full of fish, even when from their shallow appearance they can hardly be supposed to have water permanently. Mr. McKinlay subsequently alludes to the natives catching in these lakes or the creeks connected with them, the cat-fish of the Murray and the nombre of the Darling, as well as the brown perch, and what he thought a small cod. The natives were generally friendly, excepting on the occasion of Mr. McKinlay's search excursion to Lake Massacre, which we shall come to in another chapter. We leave Mr. Davis to tell of the everlasting troubles with the quadrupeds of the expedition's diversified menagerie.

Sept. 24th, 1861. Left Blanchewater this morning, and proceeded to a small creek some few miles further on. And now we are fairly off; no more haunts of civilized man! Let the gentle and I trust patient reader take his parallel ruler, scale, and protractor, and accompany us to the Leichhardt River. Down it also for 100 miles if he pleases, then through or over—or by any other means he chooses to adopt—the Burdekin ranges, including a swim through waters where alligators most do congregate, and on to Port Denison; thence in that terrible smack, "Ben Bolt," twenty-five days to Rockhampton, 300 miles only, with