s the
country intervening between this and the Gascoyne. We accordingly altered
our course to north-west for the remainder of this and the following day,
crossing several tributaries to the Murchison, in which we found plenty
of water, and on their banks an abundant supply of grass for our horses,
the streams being generally divided from each other by low stony ridges
or plains of red sandy loam, yielding a rather scanty supply of grass.

3rd May.

Having rested the party the previous day, it being Sunday, in latitude 25
degrees 33 minutes 48 seconds, at a fine pool of fresh water in a stream
running south, and apparently tributary to the Murchison, we resumed our
course for three or four miles up a branch of the stream upon which we
had been encamped, which terminated at a gentle stony ascent; another
mile brought us to its summit, which proved to be the watershed between
the Gascoyne and Murchison; its elevation was found to be 1,500 feet
above the sea. From this ridge a short descent northward led us to the
head of a watercourse, which we followed in the same direction for
seventeen miles, augmented by several small tributaries; turning to the
westward, it formed a junction with another river coming from the
eastward, in latitude 25 degrees 14 minutes 23 seconds, at an elevation
of 1,144 feet above the sea.

STONY PLAINS.

The country through which we had passed was a nearly level and barren
plain, evenly and closely paved with small stones, amongst which a few
stunted acacia found a precarious existence; to this portion of country
we gave the characteristic name of Macadam Plains.

GASCOYNE RIVER.

4th May.

The river we had encamped upon the preceding night had a level sandy
channel thirty-five yards wide, with several shallow pools in its bed; a
narrow belt of flooded-gum lined either bank, which also produced
abundance of excellent feed; several of the grasses were new to us,
yielding a large quantity of seed; further back the pasture was more
scanty, and of an inferior variety of grass, the trees consisting almost
entirely of small hakea or acacia.

The features of the country are generally very tame, with the exception
of a prominent hill of considerable altitude, nearly twenty miles to the
northward, to which we gave the name of Mount Gascoyne. The summit of
another range, of less elevation, a little to the northward of west,
distant fifteen miles, was called Mount Puckford.

Having decided upon fo