AUSTIN MARSH A SINK 191 



us, and though they could not fail to see us, one lot did 

 not so much as stand to watch, or, as far as could be seen, 

 glance towards us. But they are strange people are these 

 blackfellows, wayward and uncertain in their actions, often 

 treacherous, but rarely ungrateful or unfaithful to those 

 they know well and who have been kind to them. 



On the ioth we passed several dry salt lakes, which 

 were only moist near their centres. One of these was two 

 miles wide, and had the bed of a small stream running 

 into it. There was water in the holes in this bed, but 

 notwithstanding the quantity of rain which had recently 

 fallen, the country generally was very dry. We camped 

 on the open plain under shelter of a few stunted casuarinas, 

 and found water by digging at a depth of eight feet. 

 From this day, during the remainder of the journey, we 

 were never short of water, but obtained it either from 

 water holes, or by digging. It was generally found at a 

 depth of seven or eight feet, but there are some extensive 

 tracts in this district in which it cannot be obtained by a 

 use of the spade, for it is certain that if it does not collect 

 at a reachable depth in the wet season there cannot be 

 any near the surface of the ground in the hot, dry summer, 

 when even a chance shower can hardly be expected. 



Very few wallabies were now met with, but there were 

 plenty of birds, chiefly parrots, cockatoos and finches, with 

 ducks on the great marsh we reached on the i ith. Parrots 

 and cockatoos were shot for food, but the ducks were 

 exceedingly wild. Only the largest birds we could see 

 were shot at, for the ammunition was beginning to run 

 short, the original stock having been small on account of 

 its weight. 



The great marsh referred to above must be that which 

 was discovered by Austin, but where we came to it, it was 

 passable without difficulty. Much of it was dry salt pans, 

 and no drinkable water was obtained here, that which 

 oozed into the wells we dug being too salt or brackish to 

 be used. Clearly this district is what in the western part 

 of America would be called " a sink." We saw the beds 

 of several small rivers which run into it, but they probably 



