t camp, we were detained
till 8.10 a.m. and then steered south for three miles; the sandstone
hills here closed in on each side of the river, scarcely leaving a
passage at the base of the steep rocks; here the horse Sam fell into a
pool of water, and when extricated could not stand; this having caused
considerable delay, we encamped in a grassy flat half a mile farther on;
in the evening sent Bowman and Dean to bring the horse to the camp, but
they found him dead; marked a tree near camp 14.

19th January.

The night was fine, with heavy dew, the temperature 73 degrees at
sunrise; having collected the horses and saddled at 6.45 a.m., left the
camp and followed the valley of the river on an average south-west
course, crossing a large creek from the north-west; the valley of the
river expanded to three miles and then narrowed to one mile, and the
course of the river was nearly west till 10.50 a.m., when we encamped;
the soil of the valley is a brown loam, producing abundance of grass; but
the hills, though less rocky, are more barren than lower down the river;
the character of the channel of the river has altered, and has the
appearance of a stream which continues to run late into the dry season,
as the channels are narrow and fringed with pandanus, melaleuca, and
other trees which grow near permanent water; the banks are of less height
and the timber on them grows to a greater size than lower down the
valley; at 1.0 p.m. the thermometer 100 degrees, and the wet bulb 76
degrees, indicating 24 degrees of evaporation.

CROSS THE WICKHAM RIVER.

20th January.

Left the camp at 6.55 a.m. and followed the river in a west-north-west
direction till 8.5, when we crossed at a ledge of rocks which caused a
fall of about one foot, the water being twenty yards wide and one to two
feet deep; but above and below the rapid the river formed fine reaches
seventy yards wide; the course was now west-south-west till 9.0 a.m.,
when the river turned west, and at 10.50 came to a large stony creek from
the south-west, at which we encamped; the country on the banks of the
river rises gradually as it recedes, and, except within the influence of
the floods, is poor and stony, producing little besides a sharp grass
(triodia)--this is the spinifex of some Australian explorers--a few small
gum-trees and bushes. As we progress towards the interior the wet season
appears to have been of less duration and the fall of rain less, yet the
great heat h