168 THE SWAN RIVER DISTRICT 



or induced him to seek a new home ; or the blackfellows 

 may have been troublesome. The skulls and bones of 

 cattle, horses, and sheep were seen lying about the 

 enclosures, but not in sufficient numbers to suggest a 

 disaster. 



The wood of the railings being handy for making fires, 

 we stopped here for the night ; and during the hours of 

 darkness we several times heard the desert savages prowl- 

 ing about our camp, the loose sand and gravel giving 

 forth a crunching sound under their tread, which all their 

 caution failed to avoid ; and my own boys, still in posses- 

 sion of their acute savage faculties, recognised by other 

 signs that a party of nearly twenty natives were creeping 

 around the camp. It was, consequently, a night of watchful 

 anxiety to us, as spears might have been thrown at 

 any moment. To avoid the danger as much as possible, 

 we moved away from the immediate neighbourhood of the 

 fire, as its light must have shown us plainly to the prowlers. 



No attack was made, fortunately, and when daylight 

 came nothing could be seen of our midnight visitors. 

 They had quietly disappeared without doing us any harm. 



