Page:Tracks of McKinlay and party across Australia.djvu/370

 "Jeannie bore more north, but it bore off again to the eastward; no game of any kind Been to-day, except a turkey; a great quantity of vines on which grows four or five black fruit, like peas and extremely hard, from every flower, and on which the emu appears to feed much. There were also two other vines or runners, on which grow an oblong fruit about one to one and a half inches long, green like cucumber, but bitter; the other is a round fruit about the size of a walnut, darker in colour than the other, not so abundant, and which the emu seems to exist much on at present. Some seeds of each, and many shrubs, flowers, and fruits before new to me, I have obtained. A number of partially dried lagoons all round this, about three-quarters of a mile long. One is about six feet deep; a very fine sheet of water.'"

May 1st. (Camp xlviii.) Beautiful May morning, with a fine breeze. Palmer saw a solitary native on the horses' tracks as he was coming up with the bullocks; he "cooeyed" to him, and as soon as blacky descried him he was off like a shot. We have seen but few natives. The country fine, with lots of grass seeds. We crossed a fine dry lagoon, well grassed, in the open timbered land; then struck a creek flowing nearly north, with a fine white sandy bed, but no water. We followed it down some way, and crossed. The bank, where we struck it, was too precipitous to get up on the other side. Here we saw some dead palm-tree leaves. Crossed again in the opposite direction, three miles from where we struck it. Distance to-day, eighteen miles.

2nd. Started early over a beautiful plain, and at three miles from camp crossed a water-course,