a Trip to Port Phillip. 71 



and one native well. Upon discovering the well, Mr. Gardi- 

 ner gave the welcome shout, " Water," which was immedi- 

 ately repeated by the others, and in a few minutes the Aveary 

 ones in arrear came rushing down, anxious to quench their 

 thirst ; but by the time they had reached the well, Mr. Gar- 

 diner reported the water to be bad. 



Mr. Robertson, however, examined the well, and thinking 

 it had been choked up, he got an oyster shell and cleaned it 

 out and deepened it, expecting that the fresh water would be 

 good. The party were now obliged to wait with much anxiety, 

 watching the rising of the water in the hole, and at length 

 Mr. Robertson was enabled to distribute to each person half 

 a pint, and in about an hour a second supply of a pint 

 each was distributed for dinner, and we were enabled when 

 we quitted, at four o' clock, to take with us three bottles of 

 water. At four we continued our course along the beach, 

 Mr. Gardiner and myself making the first start, and in about 

 ten minutes we saw a dog on the beach, advancing towards 

 us. At length he stopped and then ran back again and turned 

 into the bush, from which we concluded that the natives were 

 at hand. We waited till some of the party came up, and then 

 advanced and found on the beach part of a Boomah kangaroo, 

 and we saw the tracks of several natives on the beach, and 

 several tracks of dogs. We fully expected this night to reach 

 the settlement, and we pushed on until seven o'clock; we then 

 came to a point which we fully expected would be the head of 

 the river. We crossed over the point and found a stack of 

 wattle bark, and we also found the hut where the barkers had 

 lived, and the tracks of a cart. It had been raining about 

 three quarters of an hour, and we were nearly wet through. 

 We felt assured that we were near the settlement, and that 

 the bark had been obtained by Mr. Fawkner's party, but we 

 could not see the river. It was near night, and every appear- 

 ance of a wet one, and we therefore considered it most pru- 

 dent at once to make a blanket hut for the night, and make a 

 fire before the bark and grass were too wet, and which we 

 accordingly did. Two of the party went in search of 

 waterholes, but without success, and Tom went to the beach 

 to shoot a duck, and in about ten minutes he returned, hav- 

 ing found waterholes near the beach, and where we again 

 obtained an abundant supply of good water. This night 

 was very wet and the most uncomfortable one we had 

 experienced. 



Jan. 31. — Although we were satisfied that we were near 



