s we ascended this channel,--leading so directly where we
wished to go.

Hills were occasionally seen back from it, chiefly covered with scrub,
but some were grassy and seemed fit for sheep. Others were clothed with
callitris, and there the woods were open enough to be travelled through.
I rode to the summit of one and recognized two of the points seen from
Mount First Sight. At one sharp turn of the river rugged rocks had to be
removed to make a way for the carts, but this was soon done. Beyond,
there was a noble reach of water in a rocky bed, traversed by a dyke of
felspathic rock, which exhibited a tendency to break into irregular
polygons, some of the faces of which were curved; its strike was E. and
W. We encamped on open forest land in lat. 26 deg. 54' 16" S. It was only
during the last two days that I could perceive in the barometer, any
indication that we were rising to any higher level above the sea than
that of the great basin, in which we had journeyed so long, and the
difference was still but trifling, as indicated by not more than six or
seven millimetres of the Syphon barometer; our actual height above the
sea being 737 feet. Thermometer, at sunrise, 19 deg.; at 4 P. M., 67 deg..

6TH MAY.--The banks of the Cogoon became more open, and the slopes less
abrupt as we advanced. They frequently consisted of a mixture of sand, at
a height of twenty feet above its bed; where it occupied a section of
considerable width, as much, perhaps, as 100 yards between bank and bank.
On these rounded off banks or bergs of forest land, Youranigh drew my
attention to large, old, waterworn, trunks of trees, which he showed me
had been deposited there by floods. As they were of a growth and size
quite disproportioned to other trees there, I was convinced that they
were the debris of floods; and, consequently, that a vast body of water
sometimes came down this channel. This native was taciturn and observant
of such natural circumstances, to a degree that made his opinion of value
in doubtful cases. Such, for instance, as which of two channels, that
might come both in our way, might be the main one; thus my last resource,
when almost "in a fix," was to "tomar el parecer," as they say in Spain,
of this aboriginal, and he was seldom wrong. At length, the cheering
expanse of an open country appeared before us, and a finely shaped hill,
half-covered only, with bushes. On reaching an elevated clear part, I saw
extensive downs before me