This morning we started at daybreak and breakfasted at Manbeebee, and immediately after breakfast resumed our route. I left the main party with two natives and travelled up a swampy valley running nearly in the same line as the chain of lakes we had followed in going. The natives insisted on it that these lakes were all one and the same water; and when, to prove to the contrary, I pointed to a hill running across the valley, they took me to a spot in it, called Yundelup, where there was a limestone cave, on entering which I saw, about ten feet below the level of the bottom of the valley, a stream of water running strong from south to north in a channel worn through the limestone. There were several other remarkable caves about here, one of which was called the Doorda Mya, or the Dog's House. Probably therefore the drainage of this part of the country is affected by the chain of lakes, which must afterwards fall into the river I saw to the northward. We slept at Nowoorgoop. RETURN TO PERTH. December 7. We slept at Mooloore, and on the morning of the 8th we entered Perth and found that the native's information was true, for the Britomart had arrived from England. I have already stated that on the arrival of the Champion her condition did not enable us to proceed in her, and all prospect of being able to conduct another expedition to the north-west coast being, for the present, abandoned, I could only await further instructions from the Government at home, and in the meantime resolved to employ the interval in some scheme of exploration from the Swan which did not present the same obstacles. Having again consulted Sir James Stirling, it was first arranged that I should endeavour to explore overland in the direction of Shark Bay; but this was soon abandoned on account of the difficulty of procuring horses; and, to enable me to attempt this scheme with any hope of success, I should consequently be obliged to incur a much greater expense than I felt warranted in doing. The same objection did not however exist to the plan of exploring the coast towards Shark Bay in boats; and I imagined, if I could obtain two good ones qualified for the purpose, that I might at a small expense have some chance of making a successful trip. But there still existed a difficulty in getting boats which occasioned a further delay. Sir James Stirling had now (January 1839) quitted the colony, having been succeeded in the government by John Hutt, Esquire, and, as no immediate prospect was apparent of accomplishing my present design, I readily acceded to a request made to me which led to another excursion to the southward of Perth, the principal circumstances of which are narrated in the following short journal. EXCURSION IN SEARCH OF MR. ELLIOTT. CAUSE OF IT. In consequence of a conversation I had with his Excellency the Governor on the morning of the 8th of January I received, in the afternoon of that day, a letter from the Colonial Secretary stating that: