FRESH-WATER LAKE. 
59 
contracted sufficiently to enable me to get over to 
the other side. But in doing so the ground proved 
soft and boggy, and I nearly lost one of the horses. 
Four miles beyond this river we came to another 
channel of salt water, but not so large as the last. 
In valleys sloping down to this watercourse we met, 
for the first time, clumps of a tree called by the 
residents of King George’s Sound the cabbage-tree, 
and not far from which were native wells of fresh 
water ; there were also several patches of rich land 
bordering upon the watercourse. 
Travelling for two miles further, we came to a 
very pretty fresh-water lake, of moderate size, and 
surrounded by clumps of tea- tree. It was the first 
permanent fresh water we had found on the surface 
since we commenced our journey from Fowler’s 
Bay — a distance of nearly seven hundred miles. I 
would gladly have encamped here for the night, but 
the country surrounding the lake was sandy and 
barren, and destitute of grass. We had only made 
good a distance of eleven miles from our last camp, 
and I felt anxious to get on to Lucky Bay as 
quickly as I could, in order that I might again give 
our horses a rest for a few days, which they now 
began to require. From Captain Flinders’ account 
of Lucky Bay I knew we should find fresh water and 
wood in abundance. I hoped there would also be 
grass, and in this case I had made up my mind to 
remain a week or ten days, during which I intended 
to have killed the foal we had with us, now about 
