r of fine fish, like
cobblers, were also caught, weighing from 1 to 5 pounds a-piece. As it
was Saturday, and our horses were showing unmistakable signs of knocking
up, we halted for the rest of the day. Camp 43.

Latitude 21 degrees 6 minutes 5 seconds; longitude 117 degrees 32 minutes
30 seconds.

VOLCANIC HILLS.

14th July (Sunday).

After reading prayers, Messrs. Brown, Harding, and myself walked to the
summit of the range of black volcanic hills that skirted the western bank
of the river at about a mile distant. These hills consist of ragged
scoria, elevated 300 to 400 feet above the plain, and are nearly
destitute of vegetation. At their summits are deep fissures, the heat of
the eruptive rocks from beneath having been sufficient to convert the
trap and sandstone rocks into a deep bluish-grey scoria, having a
specific gravity of nearly four; but we did not observe any instance of
the actual overflow of lava, and consequently there was a want of the
fertilising properties in the soil resulting from it that usually
accompanies volcanic formations. A native dog had left a litter of pups
under a heap of stones not eighteen inches beneath our feet, but such was
the sharpness and ponderability of the fragments of rock that it fairly
baffled our attempts to unhouse them. A valuable round of bearings was
procured from this spot, Depuch Island being seen bearing north 14
degrees east, distant about twenty-eight miles.

EXTENSIVE GRASSY PLAINS.

15th July.

We resumed our course down the Sherlock, the stony nature of the country
telling severely upon our horses' feet, who in other respects were in
very tolerable condition. We had not proceeded more than three or four
miles when Mr. Brockman's horse, Rocket, gave in, and could not move
another step, the hoof being fairly worn through; leaving him close to a
pool of water amongst plenty of feed, I hoped he might possibly recover
by the time we returned from the bay. Below this the channel became sandy
and dry, and we only procured a little water at night in a clay-hole.
Plains extended from the river to the north and eastward as far as the
eye could reach, only interrupted by occasional detached hills of granite
or volcanic trap, the feed being generally coarse and the soil poor. Camp
44.

Latitude 20 degrees 54 minutes 45 seconds.

NATIVES FISHING WITH NETS.

16th July.

Leaving the valley of the river on a north-west course, in half an hour
we came upon an o