north-west.
Thermometer, at sunrise, 59 deg.; at noon, 82 deg.; at 4 P.M., 81 deg.; at 9, 62 deg.;--
with wet bulb, 59 deg..

11TH AUGUST.--Crossing this river at a favourable spot near our camp, we
travelled on, eleven miles, and encamped early, on a fine reach of the
main river. Here I had leisure to lay down my late ride on paper, and to
connect it with the map; whereupon I concluded, with much regret, that
this river must be either a tributary to, or identical with, that which
M. Leichardt saw joining the Suttor in latitude 21 deg. 6' S., and which he
supposed to come from the west. It had supplied me with water across
three degrees of latitude, and had gradually altered its course from N.W.
to about 30 deg. E. of N. In my ride I had traced it to 21 deg. 30' of latitude
south, and no high land had appeared, as I expected, to the northward, at
all likely to turn its course towards the west. I found the height of its
bed, moreover, to be so little above the sea (not much more than 600
feet), that I could no longer doubt that the division between eastern and
western waters was still to the westward; and I arrived at the following
conclusions:--

1st. That the river of Carpentaria should have been sought for to the
westward of all the sources of the river Salvator.

2nd. That the deepest indentation as yet discovered of the division of
the waters, was at the sources of that river, and corresponded with the
greatest elevation indicated by the barometer (about 2500 feet); and,
3dly. That there, I. E. under the parallel of 25 deg. S., the highest spinal
range must extend westward, in a line of truncated cones, whereof Mount
Faraday appeared to be one.

I accordingly determined to retrace our wheel-tracks back to the head of
the Salvator, and to explore from thence the country to the north-west,
as far as our stock of provisions and the season would permit. I had
marked my camps by Roman letters cut deep in sound trees, and at this, I
left the number LXIX. cut under the initials of the colony, N.S.W.; this
being the number marked from the Culgoa. We had, at least, laid out a
good carriage road from the colony to a river in M. Leichardt's route;
which road, as far as we had marked it with our wheels, led through
pastoral regions of much greater extent than all the colonists now
occupied. At this farthest point traced by our wheels within the Tropics,
the plants were still known to botanists, but with some interesting
ex