hward. In that direction I came upon an
angle of the Balonne, at about three miles from the camp. Beyond, after
passing through much ACACIA PENDULA, I crossed a small plain, bounded by
a Casuarina scrub. Partly to ascertain its extent and character, and
partly in the hope of falling in with the river beyond, I entered it. I
found this scrub full of holes, that obliged me to pursue a very tortuous
course, impeded as I was too by the rugged stems and branches. I got
through it, only after contending with these impediments for three miles.
The country beyond it looked not at all like that back from the river,
and I turned to the N.E., pursuing that course some miles; then eastward
two miles, and next two miles to the S.E., still without finding any
river; but, on the contrary, scrub in every direction. The sun was
declining, and I turned at last to the S.W., and in that direction
reached an extensive open forest, beyond which I saw at length the river
line of trees. I continued to ride S.S.W., and finally south, until I saw
our cattle grazing, and the tents, without having regained first, as I
wished, my outward track. On the bank of the Balonne we found an
apparently new species of ANDROPOGON with loose thin panicles of purplish
flowers, and in the scrub I passed through, in my ride, I found a
CASUARINA, indeterminable in the absence of flowers or fruit. It produces
a gall as large as a hazel nut. Thermometer at sunrise, 37 deg.; at noon,
90 deg.; at 4 P.M., 94 deg.; at 9, 57 deg.;--with wet bulb, 53 deg..

6TH APRIL.--Mr. Kennedy's eyes being still very bad, I could not proceed,
as the survey of our route was very important, in order to keep our
account of longitude correctly. The necks of the cattle were much galled,
and I therefore the more willingly halted another day. It was not without
some impatience, however, that I did so, as we were approaching a point
whence I could set out with horses to the north-west, and leave the
cattle to refresh in a depot on this fine river, which afforded an
excellent base for our exploratory operations, in the wholly unknown
regions immediately beyond it. This line of exploration I had anxiously
wished to pursue in 1831, when obliged to return from the Karaula or
Upper Barwan; and whatever had since been ascertained about that part of
the interior, confirmed me the more in my first opinion as to the
eligibility of that direction. It had occurred to me, on crossing the
Culgoa, that by m