Page:Enterprise and Adventure.djvu/141

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ENTERPRISE AND ADVENTURE.
121

browsing at a distance added pastoral beauty to a scene which had recently been a desert. Five-and-twenty miles beyond the border of the colony, our traveller found a comfortable stone house, with a good garden, occupied by an old stockman and his wife. When Major Mitchell had advanced some way into the interior, he descried a peak, the name of which, he learned from his native guide, was Tangulda. This appeared to be an interesting discovery, since the way to the great river, according to the bushranger's story, was northeast by north from a mountain called Tangulda. The natives were also acquainted with the river Nammoy, which indeed afterwards proved to be the Peel River, below its junction with some other considerable streams. At a little distance from this river, and eighty or a hundred miles from the borders of the colony, the natives pointed out the remains of a house and of a very large stock-yard, which had belonged, they said, to George the Barber. The bones of bullocks were strewed round in large quantities, plainly showing the nature of the barber's business, and the object of his alliance with the natives. They appeared, at length, to be upon the true tack.

It was not found practicable to follow all the bushranger's directions. Chains of mountains intercepted their course. The enlarged appearance of the Nammoy induced the travellers to launch upon it in various boats for the purpose of descending the stream; but the number of sunken trees in the river, and the frail character of the boats, soon brought this kind of travelling to an end. Their next trouble arose from their native guide deserting the expedition, probably afraid of the