reek on which we were moving, where it had
a coarse granite bottom. The country around it improved very much in
appearance, and there was abundance of good grass on the surface of it,
in spite of the drought. On the right of this creek, a large plain
stretches parallel to it for many miles, varying in quality of soil.
Near Oxley's Table Land, we passed over open forest, the prevailing
timber of which was box. I have placed Oxley's Table Land in latitude
29 degrees 57 minutes 30 seconds, longitude 145 degrees 43 minutes 30
seconds.

Finding it impracticable to move westward from the hill I again
descended on the creek, whose general course was to the north-west, in
which direction we at length struck upon a river whose appearance
raised our most sanguine expectations. It flowed round an angle from
the north-east to the north-west, and extended in longitude five
reaches as far as we could see. At that place it was about sixty yards
broad, with banks of from thirty to forty feet high, and it had
numerous wild fowl and many pelicans on its bosom, and seemed to be
full of fish, while the paths of the natives on both sides, like
well-trodden roads, showed how numerous they were about it. On tasting
its waters, however, we found them perfectly salt, and useless to us,
and as our animals had been without water the night before, this
circumstance distressed us much; our first day's journey led us past
between sixty and seventy huts in one place, and on our second we fell
in with a numerous tribe of natives, having previously seen some
between two creeks before we made New-Year's Range. At some places the
water proved less salt than at others; our animals drank of it
sparingly: we found two small fresh-water holes, which served us as we
passed. After tracing the river for a considerable distance, we came on
brine springs in the bed of it, the banks having been encrusted with
salt from the first; and as the difficulty of getting fresh water was
so great, I here foresaw an end to our wanderings. And as I was
resolved not to involve my party in greater distress, I halted it, on
overtaking the animals, and the next morning turned back to the nearest
fresh-water, at a distance of eighteen miles from us. Unwilling,
however, to give up our pursuit, Mr. Hume and I started with two men on
horseback, to trace the river as far as we could, and to ascertain what
course it took; in the hopes also that we should fall on some creek, or
get a m