colonists, although they certainly very much resemble cod in taste. The
flakes are firmer than sea cod, and equally white, the fish affording a
very light and palatable food. When dried in the same manner as the
Newfoundland cod, in which state I have tasted this fish at Bathurst, I
could not perceive any difference either in flavour or appearance.

Being at length about to enter the Terra incognita, I deemed it expedient
to repack our stores, in order that the load might be made as light and
compact as possible, and that we might pass with less difficulty over
whatever description of ground we were destined to encounter. With this
view, I directed the flour to be started from casks into bags, and made
such arrangements as tended materially to lessen the bulk of our
provisions and other necessary stores. Having questioned the natives with
regard to the course of the Peel, I learnt that, instead of flowing
northward, as hitherto supposed, it took a westerly direction, and was
soon joined by the Muluerindie, a river coming from the north-east. The
natives further assured me that there was a good ford below the junction
of these streams at a place called Wallanburra; and I determined to
proceed to this ford, as it was not advisable, with the Muluerindie
beyond, to cross the river above the junction.

ANOTHER NATIVE GUIDE.

Being anxious to procure another guide, the overseer at Wallamoul brought
me a native named Mr. Brown, who agreed to accompany our party on
condition that he should receive blankets for himself and his gin, and a
tomahawk, the latter being a small hatchet, which is so valuable a
substitute for their stone hatchet that almost all natives within reach
of the colony have them, even where the white man is known as yet only by
name--or as the manufacturer of this most important of all implements to