ing the sky
was clouded, with lightning to the east, but no rain.

BASALTIC PLAINS.

24th January.

At 6.0 a.m. crossed the creek, and steered south-east over broken
sandstone ridges till 8.0, when we entered a plain of basaltic formation
covered with good grass, and where the ground was not entirely composed
of fragments of rock the soil was a rich black loam; crossing the large
creeks trending north, at 10.0 a.m. halted on the second. These creeks
appear to rise in a steep range of sandstone hills which bound the
basaltic plains to the west, about two miles from our track. At 3.0 p.m.
resumed our route and traversed the trap plain for one and a half hours,
and bivouacked in a small gully; the country on both sides of our track
seems to be of trap formation for several miles, and then rises into
sandstone hills with flat tops. The basaltic rock of this plain is not of
great thickness, as the sandstone rose in a few spots above its surface
and formed small islands covered with coarse vegetation, surrounded by
the open grassy plain. The basalt seems to have been poured out into the
valley after it had been excavated in the sandstone, and not to have been
much disturbed subsequently. The surface of the plain is very stony, and
the horses' feet were much injured by the roughness of the rock.

STONE SPEAR HEADS.

25th January.

The night was cloudy, and it was not till after daybreak that I could get
observations for latitude by altitudes of Venus and b Centauri. At 6.5
a.m. were again in the saddle, and steered south-east to a rocky hill,
which we reached at 7.0; the hill was sandstone, rising about 150 feet
above the trap plain; from the summit the view was extensive, but from
the broken nature of the country to the east nothing could be traced of
either the courses of creeks or rivers; to the south the trap plain rose
to a greater elevation than the summit of the hill we were on, and was
surmounted by table hills of sandstone at ten miles distance to the east
and north-east; the country appeared to consist of plains of basaltic
formation, well grassed, and very thinly wooded. Leaving this hill at
8.0, followed a dry rocky creek to the east and north-east, through
basaltic plains with sandstone hills and ridges, till 10.30, and halted
during the heat of the day. At this place the bed of the creek had been
cut through the basalt into the sandstone, exposing a fine section of the
junction of the two rocks; the sandst