letter, from the military secretary at Sydney, informing me by command of
the Acting Governor, that George Clarke--alias The Barber (The
Bushranger) had sawed off his irons, and escaped from the prison at
Bathurst. This intelligence was meant to put me on my guard respecting
the natives, for from the well-known character of the man, it was
supposed, that he would assemble them beyond the settled districts, with
a view to drive off the cattle of the colonists--and especial caution
would be necessary to prevent a surprise from natives so directed, if, as
most people supposed, his story of the great river, had only been an
invention of his own, by which he had hoped to improve his chance of
escape. (See Appendix 1.1.)

BURNING HILL OF WINGEN.

At three P.M. we reached a spot favourable for encamping, the Kingdon
brook forming a broad pool, deep enough to bathe in, and the grass in the
neighbourhood being very good. The burning hill of Wingen was distant
about four miles. This phenomenon appears to be of the same character as
that at Holworth, in the neighbourhood of Weymouth, described by
Professor Buckland and Mr. De la Beche in the following terms: "It is
probable that in each case rainwater acting on iron pyrites has set fire
to the bituminous shale; thus ignited it has gone on burning at Holworth
unto the present hour, and may still continue smouldering for a long
series of years, the bitumen being here so abundant in some strata of the
shale, that it is burnt as fuel in the adjoining cottages; the same
bituminous shale is used as fuel in the village of Kimmeridge, and is
there called Kimmeridge coal."* Wingen, the aboriginal name, is derived
from fire. The combustion extends over a space of no great extent (see
Plate 5) near the summit of a group of hills, forming part of a low chain
which divides the valley of Kingdon Ponds from that of Page's River. Thin