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CHAPTER VIII. 
Environs of the lake Alexandria — Appointment of Capt. Barker to 
make a further survey of the coast near Encounter Bay Nar 
rative of his proceedings — Mount Lofty, Mount Barker, and 
beautiful country adjacent — Australian salmon Survey of the 
coast — Outlet of lake to the sea — Circumstances that led to the 
slaughter of Capt. Barker by the natives — His character— Features 
of this part of the country and capabilities of its coasts — Its adap- 
tation for colonization. 
The foregoing narrative will have given the reader some 
idea of the state in which the last expedition reached the 
bottom of that extensive and magnificent basin which re- 
ceives the waters of the Murray. The men were, indeed, 
so exhausted, in strength, and their provisions so much re- 
duced by the time they gained the coast, that I doubted 
much, whether either would hold out to such place as we 
might hope for relief. Yet, reduced as the whole of us 
were from previous exertion, beset as our homeward path 
was by difficulty and danger, and involved as our even- 
tual safety was in obscurity and doubt, I could not but 
deplore the necessity that obliged me to re-cross the Lake 
Alexandrina (as I had named it in honour of the heir ap- 
parent to the British crown), and to relinquish the exami- 
nation of its western shores. We were borne over its ruffled 
