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always kills them; she is very powerful in magic. Ah, there she goes off to the West, now to practice her enchantments upon us. Do you see that star in the East? that's Diram, and that in the North East? that's Diram also—that in the East is Diram the woman, that in the North East is Diram the man. Do you see two little stars above the woman there? Those are her two children, she let them go astray; you see they are at some distance from her. Their uncle came and asked where were the children, and when she could not find them he was so angry that he drove a spear right through her body. You see it there sticking through her sides. That star on one side is the nose of the spear, and that on the other side is the tail of the spear." What a strange fable, but not more so than many fables of the Romans.
July 29th.—Very busy getting the ground dug about the garden, a little snugged. I suppose I shall have fifty vines bearing fruit this year, and half a dozen peach trees, and as many fig trees; we are quite at a standstill for want of potatoes for seed.
August 3rd.—Lieut. Grey has been with me for two days, and we have had some very pleasant little excursions. Yesterday he and Mr. Leake and I went to visit the waterfalls, to examine the geological curiosities as well. Mr. Preiss and I had examined the botanical features principally. We found that the little stream fell over a vein of basalt which intersected the granite and had protruded through it just at the fall, but was overlain by the granite a little higher up. The decomposition of the basalt makes a better soil than the granite, being generally a rich dark red earth. We found also a number of land shells about the rocks near the face of the cliff. These shells are rare in the colony. I do not know that I have seen any before. I had much conversation with Grey about his former discoveries. He speaks of one thing which has strengthened my belief in the existence of the inland sea. From a hill skirting the coast of Shark's Bay he
