uences.

ROUTE CONTINUED. HIGH GRASS.

After having made a sketch of this head (see the accompanying plate) I
returned to the party and, as I had not been able to find a path which
would lead us across the sandstone ridge, we continued our course round
it, retracing our steps until we reached the stream which had been
crossed this morning, and then moved westward, keeping along its southern
bank until we had turned the sandstone range and reached another stream
running from the south, which we traced up in the direction of its
source, travelling through a series of basaltic valleys of so luxuriant a
character that those of the party who were not very tall travelled, as
they themselves expressed it, between two high green walls, over which
they could not see; and these green walls were composed of rich grass
which the ponies ate with avidity. On a subsequent occasion when we
visited this valley we had to call to one another in order to ascertain
our relative positions when only a few yards apart; and yet the
vegetation was neither rank nor coarse, but as fine a grass as I have
ever seen.

REFLECTIONS.

We halted for the night in one of these lovely valleys; a clear stream
bubbled along within about fifty yards of us and, about a mile beyond,
two darkly-wooded basaltic hills raised their heads, and between these
and the stream our ponies were feeding in grass higher than themselves. I
sat in the fading light, looking at the beautiful scenery around me,
which now for the first time gladdened the eyes of Europeans; and I
wondered that so fair a land should only be the abode of savage men; and
then I thought of the curious paintings we had this day seen, of the
timid character of the natives, of their anomalous position in so fertile
a country, and wondered how long these things were to be. With so wide a
field of conjecture before me, thought naturally thronged on thought, and
the night was far advanced ere I laid down to seek repose from the
fatigues of the day.

DEEP STREAM.

March 27.

The ponies having been routed out of their long and excellent feed,
amongst which indeed it was no easy matter to find them, we moved on. I
could not but reflect how different our position and the condition of the
ponies would have been had we known as much of the country at first
starting as we did at present; but these reflections were now useless.
With the exception of one small rocky valley, the whole of our morning's
journey