BAROME'l'ER BROKEN. 
21 
tlie natives who frequent the located districts. They were 
5,enerally clean limbed and stout, and some of the young 
men had pleasing intelligent countenances. They lacerate 
their bodies, inflicting deep wounds to raise the flesh, and 
extract thefront teeth likethe Bathurst tribes; and their wca- 
ponsare precisely the same. They are certainly amerry people, 
and sit up laughing and talking more than half the night. 
Curing the removal of the stores my barometer was un- 
fortunately broken, and I had often, in the subsequent stages 
of the journey, occasion to regret the accident. I appre- 
hend that the corks in the instrument, placed to steady the 
tube, are too distant from each other in most cases; and 
indeed I fear that barometers as at present constructed, will 
seldom be carried with safety in overland expeditions. 
ine only of the natives accompanied us on the morning 
succeeding the day in which we crossed the river. Bo- 
theri was, however, at the head of them; and, as we 
journeyed along, he informed me that he had been pro- 
mised a wife on his return from acting as our guide, by the 
chief of the last tribe. The excessive heat of the weather 
obliged us to shorten our journey, and we encamped about 
noon in some scrub after having traversed a level country 
for about eleven miles. 
Several considerable plains were noticed to our right 
stretching east and west, which were generally rich in point' 
0 sod ; but we passed through much brushy land during 
the day. It was lamentable to see the state of vegetation 
upon the plains from want of moisture. Although the coun- 
