st, and at length
found a practicable route to the tributaries of the Warrego River, to
which the party was advanced. A heavy shower of rain had filled the
gullies in this locality, and green grass clothed the country, forming a
striking contrast to the dry and waterless valley of the Maranoa.

15th to 16th April.

Fine openly timbered valleys, well suited for pasture, alternated with
ridges of scrub of brigalow acacia till we reached Mount Playfair, a
basaltic hill on the sandstone ridge which separates the Warrego Valley
from that of the Nive, a small branch of which was followed down to its
junction with the main channel in latitude 25 degrees 6 minutes. The soil
in the valley of the Nive is sandy, thinly grassed, and openly timbered
with ironbark spotted gum, etc.; the back country rising into low
sandstone ridges, covered with dense scrub of brigalow acacia. Some pools
of permanent water containing small fish were passed, on the bank of
which the remains of numerous native camps were seen.

17th April.

From the Nive River a north-north-west course was pursued through a
nearly level sandy country, covered with a scrub of acacia, eucalypti,
bottle-tree, etc., which offered great impediments to our progress, till
within six miles of the Victoria River, when we suddenly emerged from the
scrub on to open downs of rich clay soil; but the drought had been of
such a long continuance that the whole of the vegetation had been
destroyed and swept away by the wind, leaving the country to all
appearance an absolute desert. The bed of the Victoria was scarcely ten
yards wide, and perfectly dry, so that it was only after a prolonged
search along its course that a small puddle of water was found in a
hollow of the clay flat, and near it, fortunately for our horses, a
little grass growing in widely scattered tufts.

THE BARCOO RIVER.

19th April.

Being now on the line of route which Dr. Leichhardt had stated his
intention of following, the party was divided, so that both sides of the
river were examined in all probable positions in which his camps might
have been situated; but as the high floods appeared to have inundated the
country for nearly a mile on each bank last year, all tracks of previous
explorers were necessarily obliterated, and it was only by marked trees,
or the bones of cattle, that we could hope to discover any trace. During
the first two days' journey down the river only a few small pools of
water were s