AGED NATIVE. 
4 J 
time, as life appeared to be fast ebbing away ; he 
seemed almost unconscious of our presence, and 
stared upon us with a vacant unmeaning gaze. 
The pleasures or sorrows of life were for ever over 
with him: his case was far beyond the reach of human 
aid, and the probability is that he died a very few 
hours after we left him. 
Such is the fate of the aged and helpless in savage 
life, nor can we wonder that it should be so, since 
self-preservation is the first law of nature, and the 
wandering native who has to travel always over a 
great extent of ground to seek for his daily food, could 
not obtain enough to support his existence, if obliged 
to remain with the old or the sick, or if impeded 
by the incumbrance of carrying them with him ; still 
I felt grieved for the poor old man we had left 
behind us, and it was long before I could drive 
away his image from my mind, or repress the 
melancholy train of thoughts that the circumstance 
had called forth. 
From the summit of Spring Hill, I observed ex- 
tensive plains to the N. W. skirted both on their 
eastern and western sides, by open hills, whilst to 
the N. W. and N. E. the ranges were high, and 
apparently terminated in both directions by peaked 
summits on their eastern extremes; a little south 
of west the waters of Spencers Gulf were distinctly 
visible, and the smokes ascending from the fires of 
the natives, were seen in many directions among the 
hills. After passing Spring Hill, we crossed some 
