ay December 12th. Camp Number 16. Situated on Pratt Creek.

At 8.50 made one mile south-west by south up the creek from Number 16
Camp to a waterhole where Fisherman and Jemmy were filling the
water-bottles to carry on the packhorse, so as to supply us whilst in
search of more water. At 10.4 made one mile and a quarter, about south to
a waterhole up the creek. At 12 made five miles and three-quarters
south-west to one of the branches of the Gregory River, which I have
named Elliott Creek, over rich well-grassed plain country. At 12.10 made
one mile south to where Jemmy left us to return to Camp 16. At 1.24 made
two miles south, where we left following up Elliott Creek, despairing of
finding water in it. At 1.35 made half a mile south-west to a tree which
Fisherman climbed to look across the plains. At 6.24 made thirteen miles
south-west, which distance on that course took us across the plain near
to a large clump of timber. The grass on the plain is good, with a
considerable quantity of saltbush among it, but we were afraid we would
not find water in the watercourse we were approaching, we had seen so few
birds on the plain. At 6.43 made one mile south to a clump of trees
resembling myall, which I have seen before to the west of Rockhampton. At
8 made two miles and three-quarters about south down the watercourse in
search of water, having stopped for our supper and started again. At 12
made two miles and a quarter south by west down the watercourse to some
young grass, where we camped for the remainder of the night.

Friday December 13th.

In the morning we heard a great number of birds and expected to find
water. At 6.5 a.m. made three-quarters of a mile west in search of water,
hearing birds in that direction. At 6.44 made one mile about south-east
back to the creek. At 8.45 made six miles about south-west down the creek
in search of water to the junction of watercourse from the north which I
have named Pring Creek. On the point between the two creeks we marked a
tree with a broad arrow before L. At this place we stopped until nine
o'clock and in the meantime gave the horses each two quarts of water from
the supply we had with us. At 9.25 made one mile north-north-west up
Pring Creek to the junction of a creek from north. At 9.35 made one mile
north-north-west up the latter creek to where we started for Number 16
Camp without having found water. At 10.47 made three miles and
three-quarters west by north over rich thi