reat
distance from our camp, those natives whose song we had heard last
evening, but without taking any notice of them, except by slightly waving
my hand. One tall female stooped amongst the long grass, and several
others, male and female, endeavoured to hide themselves in a similar
manner, as they beheld, probably for the first time, a white man on
horseback, followed by others bearing a saw and axes. On the summit, grew
the Malga tree; which is an acacia of such very hard wood, that I was
obliged to be content to cut off the top branches only of a tree on the
summit I had endeavoured to cut down, and to erect a sort of platform on
the remainder, whence I took my angles. Up the river, there appeared some
open plains, and a level horizon, in the direction of its apparent
course. Thermometer, at sunrise, 11 deg.; at noon, 65 deg.; at 4 P. M., 67 deg.; and
at 9, 30 deg..

25TH MAY.--Protracting the observed angles I endeavoured to fix, if
possible, some prominent points, whereby I might obtain some knowledge of
the structure of the surrounding country. The result of my work was a
conviction that the course of the river was parallel to the projecting
extremities of the low range beyond it (River Head Range), and that its
basin had extensive ramifications, back amongst the sandstone cliffs on
this side. But the course downwards still remained a question, which
diminished in its importance, as I discovered the upper course to come
from where it was my wish to go. I resolved, nevertheless, while thus
awaiting the arrival of the drays, to extend my ride of the 23RD MAY, and
ascertain whether it could turn westward under the southern cliffs, the
only direction in which it was likely to be available to us, downwards,
at this time. Thermometer, at sunrise, 17 deg.; at noon, 70 deg.; at 4 P.M. 68 deg.;
and at 9, 38 deg..

26TH MAY.--Taking with me two men and Yuranigh, mounted, I retraced my
former track to the westward, and on proceeding beyond the dry river bed,
where I had previously been, I entered amongst sandstone gullies, where
one grassy flat extended nearly in the direction I wished to pursue; and
this brought me to a sort of table-land, covered with an open forest of
iron-bark (with the common leaf). The rock consisted here of the same
felspathic sort characterising most of the hills of the Barwan basin; the
soil sterile, bearing, in lieu of the ordinary grass, the stiff, hard
leaved, glutinous TRIODIA PUNGENS. But this