NARRATIVE OF MR. CARRON. 197 



tained seeds. We shot three ducks to-day^ and 

 Wall killed a wallaby of a lig-ht g'rey colour^ long- 

 soft fur^ and rather bushy tail j he thoug'ht it new, 

 and preserved the skin. I also obtained specimens 

 of a beautiful plant, a shrub about two feet hig'h, 

 with white sweet-scented blossoms, belong-ing- to the 

 natural order Hiiblacece, and several other interesting- 

 plants. Lately, however, my specimens had been 

 very much spoiled, — being; torn from the horse's 

 back so frequently, that I grew disheartened to see 

 all the efforts I had made, made in vain, althoug-h I 

 still took every method to preserve them from 

 injmy. 



Oct. 2nd. — This morning- we proceeded across 

 the plain, and when we had advanced about two 

 miles upon it, we discovered that the natives had set 

 the grass on fire behind us, and the wind blowing* 

 from the eastward, and the grass growing- thick and 

 high, it rapidly gained upon us; we made all 

 possible haste to some burned g-round which we had 

 seen on Saturday, and reached it only a few minutes 

 before the fire. We were enveloped in smoke and 

 ashes, but fortunately no one was burned. The 

 natives did not come near us, althoug'h no doubt 

 they watched us, and saw us proceeding- to the part 

 of the plain that was burned. The plain extended 

 a great distance to the westward, and in crossing- it 

 one of our horses knocked up and could travel no 

 longer; Mr. Kennedy ordered him to be bled, and 

 we not liking to lose the blood, boiled it as a blood- 



