52 
BLACK SWANS. 
the account given by Mr. Brown of his ascent of 
Mount Brown in March 1802, tempt me to delay 
a day to enable me to view the uninteresting pros- 
pect he had seen from the summit of that hill — 
by far the highest peak in this part of Flinders 
range. 
Having decided upon ridingon a head of my 
party to reconnoitre, as soon as the Water witch 
should arrive, I at once commenced my prepara 
tions, and made the overseer put new shoes on the 
horses I intended to take with me. The very stony 
character of the country we had been lately tra- 
versing and the singularly hard nature of the stone 
itself, had caused the shoes to wear out very rapidly, 
and there was hardly a horse in the teams that did 
not now require new shoes ; fortunately we had 
brought a very large supply with us, and my over- 
seer was a skilful and expeditious farrier. At dusk 
a watch was set upon one of the hills near us, to 
look out for signals from the Waterwitch in the 
direction of Spencer’s gulf, but none were seen. 
July 4. — Whilst writing in my tent this even- 
ing, my attention was attracted by the notes of 
swans, and upon going out I perceived a flight of 
several of the black species coming up from the 
southward ; when they had got over the tents, they 
appeared to be alarmed and wheeled to the east- 
ward, but soon returning, they took a nearly due 
northerly course. This was encouraging for us, 
and augured well for the existence of some con- 
