14 
NATIVE BUEIAL VLACE. 
imposing any restraint on these men, in consequence of 
vrhich they afterwards mustered sufficient resolution to visit 
us in our camp. We now judged that we were about ten 
miles from the cataract, and that, according to the ac- 
counts of the stockman, we could not be very distant from 
the lake he had mentioned. 
As I was unwilling to pass any important feature of the 
country without enquiry or examination, I requested Mr* 
Hume to interrogate the strangers on the subject. They 
stated that they belonged to the lake tribe, that the lake 
was a short day’s journey to the eastward, and that they 
would guide us to it if we wished. The matter was accord- 
ingly arranged. They left us at dusk, but returned to the 
camp at the earliest dawn ; when we once more crossed the 
river, and, after traversing a very level country for about 
nine miles, arrived at our destination. We passed over the 
dried beds of lagoons, and through coppices of cypresses 
and acacia pendula, or open forest, but did not observe any 
of the barren stony ridges so common to the N.E. About 
a mile, or a mile and a half, from the lake we examined a 
solitary grave that had recently been constructed. It con- 
sisted of an oblong mound, with three semicircular seats. 
A walk encompassed the whole, from which three others 
branched off for a few yards only, into the forest. Several 
cypresses, overhanging the grave, were fancifully carved on 
the inner side, and on one the shape of a heart was deeply 
engraved. 
We were sadly disappointed in the appearance of the 
