narrow, was beautifully grassed. Trichodesma, Grewia, Crinum, and the trefoil of the Suttor, grew on the flats; the apple-gum, rusty-gum, the mountain Acacia and Fusanus, the last in blossom, grew on the ridges.
The rock was a baked sandstone; in the pebbles of the creek I found the impressions of bivalves (one ribbed like Cardium).
Our bullocks had become so foot-sore, and were so oppressed by the excessive heat, that it was with the greatest difficulty we could prevent them from rushing into the water with their loads. One of them — that which carried the remainder of my botanical collection — watched his opportunity, and plunged into a deep pond, where he was quietly swimming about and enjoying himself, whilst I was almost crying with vexation at seeing all my plants thoroughly soaked.
Nov. 5. — We travelled in all about eleven miles N. 55 degrees W. to latitude 13 degrees 50 minutes. After following the creek, on which we had encamped, to its head, we passed over a scrubby stringy-bark forest; and, whenever we came to watercourses going to the eastward, we turned to the north-west and westward. We passed several sandstone hills and ridges rising out of this sandy table land, and attempted to cross one of them, but our path was intercepted by precipices and chasms, forming an insurmountable barrier to our cattle. We, therefore, followed a watercourse to the southward, winding between two ranges to the westward and southward, and continued again to the north-west, which brought us to a tributary of the creek we had just left, and in which we found large water-holes covered with Nymphaeas and Villarsias.
The strata of the range which we ascended, dipped to the south-west; in which direction I saw a high range, probably the continuation of the one I had observed at yesterday’s stage along Roper’s Creek.
The Melaleuca-gum, the Cypress-pine, Fusanus and Banksia abounded in the stringy-bark forest, and along the creeks; and the flats round the water-holes were covered with a dark green sedge, which, however, our cattle did not relish so much as, from its inviting verdure, I had anticipated would have been the case. The remains of fresh-water turtles were frequently noticed in the camps of the natives; and Mr. Calvert had seen one depicted with red ochre on the rocks. It is probable that this animal forms a considerable part of the food of the natives. John Murphy reported that he had seen a hut of the natives constructed of sheets of stringy-bark, and spacious enough to receive our whole party; the huts which I had observed were also very spacious, but covered with tea-tree bark. Smoke from the natives’ fires was seen from the range in every direction, and their burnings invariably led us to creeks.
Charley shot a rock wallabi of a different species from any we had previously seen: it was of a light grey colour; the tail was smooth, and its black tip was more bushy than in other species; there were two white spots on the shoulder; it was smaller than those of Ruined Castle Creek, and the red wallabies of the Mitchell and of the shores of the gulf. John shot a large Iguana of remarkably bright colours, which were perhaps owing to a late desquamation of the skin.
Nov. 6. — We travelled fourteen miles N. 30 degrees W. to latitude 13 degrees 38 minutes 28 seconds, and encamped in a little creek, at the head of which was a grassy drooping tea-tree swamp. We left all the eastern water-courses to the right, and followed several which went down to the southward, up to their heads. The country, with the exception of the ridges which bounded the narrow valleys of watercourses, was a sandy level stringy-bark forest, interspersed with Melaleuca-gum and leguminous Ironbark; saplings of which formed large tracts of a low open under-wood. We had passed a large but dry swamp, having no outlet, and surrounded with Pandanus, when Brown called my attention to an opening in the forest, and to a certain dim appearance of the atmosphere peculiar to extensive plains and valleys. Travelling in that direction we soon found ourselves at the margin o