At this place The Widow, being far beyond her own country, was inclined to go back and, although I intended to put her on a more direct and safe way home after we should pass the heads of the Murrumbidgee on our return, I could not detain her longer than she wished. Her child, to whom she appeared devotedly attached, was fast recovering the use of its broken limb; and the mother seemed uneasy under an apprehension that I wanted to deprive her of this child. I certainly had always wished to take back with me to Sydney an aboriginal child with the intention of ascertaining what might be the effect of education upon one of that race. This little savage, who at first would prefer a snake or lizard to a piece of bread, had become so far civilised at length as to prefer bread; and it began to cry bitterly on leaving us. The mother however thought nothing of swimming, even at that season, across the broad waters of the Millewa, as she should be obliged to do, pushing the child before her, floating on a piece of bark. ENTER A HILLY COUNTRY. July 4. At the distance of about a mile to the southward a line of trees marked the course of another channel which, containing only a few ponds, we crossed without difficulty. Beyond it we traversed a plain five miles in extent, and backed by low grassy hills composed of grey gneiss. The most accessible interval between these hills still appeared to be in the direction I had chosen at Mount Hope, as leading to the lowest opening of a range still more distant: I therefore continued on that bearing, having the highest of those hills to our left at the distance of five or six miles. On entering the wood skirting the wide plain, our curiosity was rather disappointed at finding, instead of rare things, the black-butted gum and casuarinae, trees common in the colony. The woolly gum also grew there, a tree much resembling the box in the bark on its trunk, although that on the branches, unlike the box, is smooth and shining. In this wood we recognised the rosella parrot, and various plants so common near Sydney but not before seen by us in the interior.