280 STATE OF THE INTERIOR. 
natives, as to the nature of the country inland, the 
existence of timber, rocks, water, &c. and though 
we were far from being able to understand all that 
they said, or to acquire half the information that they 
wished to convey to us, we still comprehended them 
sufficiently to gather many useful and important 
particulars. In the interior, they assured us, most 
positively, there was no water, either fresh or salt, 
nor anything like a sea or lake of any description. 
They did not misunderstand us, nor did we mis- 
apprehend them upon this point, for to our repeated 
inquiries for salt water, they invariably pointed to a 
salt lake, some distance behind the sand-hills, as the 
only one they knew of, and which at this time we 
had not seen. 
With respect to hills or timber, they said, that 
neither existed inland, but that further along the 
coast to the westward, we should find trees of a 
larger growth, and among the branches of which 
lived a large animal, which by their description, I 
readily recognized as being the Sloth of New South 
Wales ; an animal whose habits exactly agreed with 
their description, and which I knew to be an inha- 
bitant of a barren country, where the scrub was of 
a larger growth than ordinary. One of the natives 
had a belt round his waist, made of the fur of the 
animal they described, and on inspecting it, the 
colour and length of the hair bore out my previous 
impression. 
The next water along the coast we were informed, 
