o have sufficient for a bath! I told
Robinson of my views regarding him, but said he must yet remain until
some eastern waters could be found. On the 30th October, Mr.
Carmichael and I, with three fresh horses, started again. In my
travels southerly I had noticed a conspicuous range of some elevation
quite distinct from the ridges at which our camp was fixed, and lying
nearly east, where an almost overhanging crag formed its north-western
face. This range I now decided to visit. To get out of the ridges in
which our creek exists, we had to follow the trend of a valley formed
by what are sometimes called reaphook hills; these ran about
east-south-east. In a few miles we crossed an insignificant little
creek with a few gum-trees; it had a small pool of water in its bed:
the valley was well grassed and open, and the triodia was also absent.
A small pass ushered us into a new valley, in which were several
peculiar conical hills. Passing over a saddle-like pass, between two
of them, we came to a flat, open valley running all the way to the
foot of the new range, with a creek channel between. The range
appeared very red and rocky, being composed of enormous masses of red
sandstone; the upper portion of it was bare, with the exception of a
few cypress pines, moored in the rifled rock, and, I suppose, proof to
the tempest's shock. A fine-looking creek, lined with gum-trees,
issued from a gorge. We followed up the channel, and Mr. Carmichael
found a fine little sheet of water in a stony hole, about 400 yards
long and forty yards wide. This had about four feet of water in it;
the grass was green, and all round the foot of the range the country
was open, beautifully grassed, green, and delightful to look at.
Having found so eligible a spot, we encamped: how different from our
former line of march! We strolled up through the rocky gorge, and
found several rock reservoirs with plenty of water; some palm-like
Zamias were seen along the rocks. Down the channel, about south-west,
the creek passed through a kind of low gorge about three miles away.
Smoke was seen there, and no doubt it was an encampment of the
natives. Since the heavy though dry thunderstorm at Glen Thirsty, the
temperature has been much cooler. I called this King's Creek. Another
on the western flat beyond joins it. I called the north-west point of
this range Carmichael's Crag. The range trended a little south of
east, and we decided to follow along its southern face, w