188 J. B. CLELAND. 



of extensive plains of spinifex (Triodia), crossed by occas- 

 ional broad but usually dry rivers, with occasional low 

 isolated hills jutting up. Some fifteen miles or more from 

 the camp, a moderate sized range of hills was discernible. 



Sturt, daring his exploration, heard similar sounds on 

 three occasions. The first was when camped on the newly 

 discovered Darling River, near Bourke, in February 1829. 

 He says 2 : — "About 3 p.m. on the 7th, Mr. Hume and I 

 were occupied tracing the chart upon the ground. The 

 day had been remarkably fine, not a cloud was there in the 

 heavens, nor a breath of air to be felt. On a sudden we 

 heard what seemed to be the report of a gun fired at the 

 distance of between five and six miles. It was not the 

 hollow sound of an earthly explosion, or the sharp cracking 

 noise of falling timber, but in every way resembled a dis- 

 charge of a heavy piece of ordnance. On this all were 

 agreed, but no one was certain whence the sound proceeded. 

 Both Mr. Hume and myself had been too attentive to our 

 occupation to form a satisfactory opinion; but we both 

 thought it came from the N.W. I sent one of the men 

 immediately up a tree, but he could observe nothing unusual. 

 The country around him appeared to be equally flat on all 

 sides, and to be thickly wooded ; whatever occasioned the 

 report, it made a strong impression on all of us; and to this 

 day, the singularity of such a sound, in such a situation, is 

 a matter of mystery to me." The second and third occas- 

 ions on which Sturt heard this singular phenomenon are 

 recorded as follows 3 : — "When Mr. Browne and I were on 

 our recent journey to the north, after having crossed the 

 Stony Desert (i.e., in September), being then between it 

 and Eyre's Creek, about nine o'clock in the morning, we 



2 Sturt, Two Expeditions into the Interior of South. Austr., 2nd Edit., 

 1834, Vol. i, p. 98. 



2 Sturt, Narr. of an Exped. into Central Austr., 1844-6, Vol. n, p. 24. 



