temple. The roasting snake, which we had seen in the morning, belonged,
as we now learned, to this witch of the glen.

PROPOSED EXCURSION WITH PACKHORSES.

The boys did not visit us in the evening as Mr. Brown had expected; and
he appeared unusually thoughtful, when I found him sitting alone by the
waterside, at some distance from the camp. I was then making arrangements
for carrying across the range the bulk of our provisions and equipment on
packhorses and bullocks, intending to leave the remainder of our stores
at this spot, in charge of two men armed; but of this measure Mr. Brown
did not approve.

NATIVE GUIDE ABSCONDS.

December 20.

When the packhorses had been loaded and we were about to start, leaving
the remainder of our provisions in charge of two men, we discovered that
our native guide was missing. I had promised him for his services a
tomahawk, a knife, and a blanket, and as I supposed he was already far
beyond his own beat, he might have had the promised rewards, by merely
asking for them. We had always given him plenty of flour, also his choice
of any part of the kangaroos we killed. It had been observed by the men
that the intelligence received from the old woman had made him extremely
uneasy, and he had also expressed to them on the previous evening his
apprehensions about the natives in the country before us. I was very
sorry for the loss of Mr. Brown. He was very comical, as indeed these
half-civilised aborigines generally are; he liked to be close-shaved,
wore a white neckcloth, and declared it to be his intention of becoming,