How then were we to account
for their being where we found them, and for the no less singular
phenomenon of brackish waters in the bed of a fresh water creek? These
were exceedingly puzzling questions to me at the time, but, as the reader
will find, were afterwards explained. Mr. Browne succeeded in taking no
less than thirteen fish, and seemed to think that they were identical
with the silver perch of the Murray, but they appeared to me to be a
deeper and a thinner fish. Although none of them exceeded six inches in
length, they were very acceptable to men who were living on five pounds
of flour only a-week.
The night we stayed here was very dark, and about 11 p.m. the horses
which had been turned down the creek by Flood, rushed violently past our
fire, as if they had been suddenly alarmed. They were found at a distance
of five miles above us the next morning, but we could never discover why
they had taken fright. Their recovery detained us longer than our usual
hour, but at nine we mounted, and, crossing the creek at three-quarters
of a mile, ascended a hill, connected with several others by sandy
valleys, and saw that the creek, a little below where we crossed it,
turned to the west. We could trace its course, by the trees on its bank,
for several miles. From the hills we descended to a country of a very
different character from that which I have been describing.
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