despatched in quest of him, and at length, after an arduous search, he was found behind a large sandstone rock on the side of a hill; having revisited the spot where the provisions had been concealed for the use of my party, in the hope of obtaining possession of his god the rum-keg.  He had evidently prepared for desertion:  clothing, biscuit, and fishing-tackle being among the stores with which he had made off.  This despicable wretch—­for such must everyone consider the man who would steal his shipmates’ provisions, when each had only his bare allowance—­had nothing to say, either in extenuation or explanation of his conduct.  Most fortunate for him was it that our humane exertions to discover his retreat were successful; he could not long have subsisted by himself, and even had he been so happy as to fall in with, and receive hospitable welcome from the natives, he must of necessity have lingered out a life of toilsome, cheerless hardship while a companion of their wanderings, and when unfitted for this by old age, he would, according to the custom of the country, have been left to die, unfriended and alone, upon the spot where his last weary efforts failed.  The delay occasioned by this extraordinary and unlooked-for event, made it late by the time all the boats were fairly on their way down the river.  The wind was light from the north-east, and the temperature about 90 degrees, at 9 o’clock.

New kangaroo.

I pushed on to gain a station at the commencement of the hills on the eastern side of Whirlwind Plains, and also, if possible, to shoot a kangaroo to send to the ship:* I was so fortunate as to secure two; one of a new species, very small, and of a dark brown colour, with coarse hair, I found in rocky land, which it appears solely to inhabit, as it was also found near the ship.  As, however, like the generality of kangaroos, this species only move of their own accord in the night time, they are rarely seen, and but one good specimen was obtained by Lieutenant Emery, who brought it to England, and submitted it to Mr. Gould, who has described it as Petrogale concinna.  It is now in the British Museum.

(Footnote.  I had now become quite an adept in this kind of sport.  My plan was to direct a man to walk along near the river, where they are generally found, whilst I kept considerably above him and a little in advance, so that all those that were started running up from the bank in the curved direction, habitual with all kangaroos, passed within shot.)

The height we visited was of coarse sandstone formation, and attained an elevation of 150 feet.  As I was left to examine some parts of the river which had been passed in the night, I had a further opportunity of determining the value, and estimating the fertility of Whirlwind Plains.  My examination only confirmed my previous conjectures in favour of the capabilities of the soil.  From what I had seen at Port Essington, as ground considered favourable for the growth of cotton, there can be no doubt that on these plains it would thrive much better; but the soil on the Victoria is of too fertile a character to bear any comparison with that of Cobourg Peninsula.