variation of compass 5
degrees east.

THE FLINDERS RIVER.

9th September.

Left our waterless camp at 6.10 a.m., steering north 50 degrees east
magnetic over a level grassy plain; at 9.40 reached a fine river of fresh
water 100 yards wide, but very shallow; pelicans, ducks, and other
water-fowl were numerous, but very shy and wild; here we camped, although
the grass was very inferior on the immediate banks of the river, the
surface of the soil being very much furrowed by the rain; small fragments
of limestone and a few quartz pebbles have been observed on the surface
of the plain for the past twenty miles, and a dark limestone rock is
exposed in the bed of the river, where it has horizontal stratification;
fragments of flinty slate and trap exist in the gravel of the bed of the
river, which, from its position, must be the Flinders River of the
charts.

Latitude by a Aquilae 18 degrees 8 minutes 41 seconds; variation of
compass 4 degrees 20 minutes east.

10th September.

6.10 a.m. again found us in the saddle, and crossing the right bank
followed it to the south-south-east till 7.20, when it turned to the
south-south-west, and changing our course to the east, passed through a
fine grassy plain for two miles, and entered a level open box-flat, well
grassed, the soil a brown loam; this continued till 2.30 p.m., when we
entered a belt of terminalia, and at 1.0 reached a small watercourse, and
camped at a fine waterhole fifty yards wide and 100 yards long,
apparently deep and permanent water, with open grassy banks; this
waterhole would render a great extent of the fine grassy country around
available for pasturage; in passing through the box forest we observed
several sleeping places which had been constructed by the blacks during
the wet season; they consisted of four stakes two feet high, supporting a
platform of small sticks five feet long and two and a half feet wide;
three to twenty of these frames would be grouped together, and were
frequent till we reached the Gilbert River.

Latitude by Vega 18 degrees 10 minutes 30 seconds.

11th September.

At 6.20 a.m. steered east for one hour through level box and terminalia
flats, with good grass and brown loam; came to a fine lagoon eighty yards
wide and nearly one mile long; beyond this was a creek with small pools
of water; as it appeared to come from the south-east, we steered in that
direction, but soon receded from it, as its course changed to
south-south-