170 MEET THE NATIVES. [CH. II. 



cannot be known to him, whose life is counted out in a mo- 

 notonous succession of hours of eating- and sleeping within 

 a house; whose food is adulterated by spices, and sauces, 

 intolerable to real hunger — and whose drink, instead of the 

 sweet refreshing distillation from the heavens, consists of vile 

 artificial extracts, loathed by the really thirsty man, with 

 whom the pure element resumes its true value, and esta- 

 blishes its real superiority over every artificial beverage. 



April 11. — At seven o'clock, I proceeded, with Mr. Cun- 

 ningham, to the summit of a cone, bare of timber, which I 

 had observed from the Canobolas, and which bore 138° E. of 

 N. from our camp, distant about six miles. The ascent was 

 easy, and from the summit, (on which Mr. C. obligingly 

 erected a pyi'amid), I obtained many valuable angles with 

 my theodolite, on the very distant hills, which broke the 

 western horizon. We found the variation of the needle to 

 be 8° 40' E. This hill I named, at Mr. Cunningham's 

 request. Mount Juson. We returned to the camp at half- 

 past two, when we found the party ready to start ; and, ac- 

 cordingly, we proceeded forward. Our journey was throuo-h 

 verdant vales, increasing in width as we followed the chan- 

 nel of the stream, we had traced from the mountain, and 

 which now contained abundant pools of water. At length 

 the sound of the native's hatchet was heard, and one came 

 forward to meet me. We learned from him, that we were 

 upon " Buriinbil" creek, and that its course was south-west 

 towards the *' Calare," or Lachlan. The range, whence we 

 came, they called " Warre" (Croker's range of Oxley), and 

 that north of it, Goobang (Harvey's range of the same), from 

 which, as I was also informed, a creek of similar name issued 

 and flowed into the Burunbil 



The evening was beautiful ; the new grass springing in 

 places where it had been burnt, presented a shining verdure 

 in the rays of the descending sun ; the songs of the birds ac- 

 corded here with other joyous sounds, the very air seemed 

 alive with the music of animated nature, so different was the 



