TRACES OF NATIVES. 
15 
hilly, and sandy. The horses crawled on for twenty - 
one miles, when I halted for an hour to rest, and to 
have a little tea from our now scanty stock of water. 
The change which I had noticed yesterday in the vege- 
tation of the country, was greater and more cheering 
every mile we went, although as yet the country 
itself was as desolate and inhospitable as ever. The 
smaller Banksias now abounded, whilst the Banksia 
grandis, and many other shrubs common at King 
George’s Sound, were frequently met with. The 
natives, whose tracks we had so frequently met with, 
taking the same course as ourselves to the westward, 
seemed now to be behind us ; during the morning we 
had passed many freshly lit fires, but the people 
themselves remained concealed ; we had now lost all 
traces of them, and the country seemed untrodden 
and un tenanted. In the course of our journey this 
morning, we met with many holes in the sheets of 
limestone, which occasionally coated the surface of 
the ground ; in these holes the natives appeared to 
procure an abundance of water after rains, but it 
was so long since any had fallen, that all were dry 
and empty now. In one deep hole only, did we find 
the least trace of moisture ; this had at the bottom of 
it, perhaps a couple of wine glasses full of mud and 
water, and was most carefully blocked up from the 
birds with huge stones : it had evidently been visited 
by natives, not an hour before we arrived at it, but 
I suspect they were as much disappointed as we 
were, upon rolling away all the stones to find nothing 
in it. 
