as delayed on the morning of the 20th for about an hour
from being unable to find one of the horses which had strayed away in the
night, but, the fugitive being at length discovered and brought back, we
started and made nine miles before breakfast. We then travelled nine and
a half miles more, when we came upon the river Harvey near its source.
The character of the country we had travelled over since entering the
mountains was monotonous in the extreme. It consisted of an elevated
tableland composed of ironstone and granite occasionally traversed by
veins of whinstone. On this tableland there was little or no herbage; the
lower vegetation consisting principally of a short prickly scrub, in some
places completely destroyed by the native fires; but the whole country
was thickly clothed with mahogany trees, so that in many parts it might
be called a dense forest. These mahogany trees ascended, without a bend
or without throwing off a branch, to the height of from forty to fifty
feet, occasionally much more, and the ground was so encumbered by the
fallen trunks of these forest trees that it was sometimes difficult to
pick a passage between them. Even at midday the forest wore a sombre
aspect, and a stillness and solitude reigned throughout it that was very
striking. Occasionally a timid kangaroo might be seen stealing off in the
distance, or a kangaroo-rat might dart out from a tuft beneath your feet;
but these were rare circumstances. The most usual disturber of these
wooded solitudes were the black cockatoos; but I have never in any part
of the world seen so great a want of animal life as in these mountains.

Upon our gaining the Harvey however the scene somewhat changed; the river
here bore the appearance of a mountain trout-stream, sometimes gurgling
along with a rapid current, and sometimes forming large pools. The
tableland could no longer be distinguished as it here changed to a broken
chain of hills traversed by deep valleys; the scrub was higher and
entwined by a variety of climbing plants, which rendered it very
difficult to traverse; the mahogany trees became less frequent, and
various others were mingled with them, whilst on the banks of the river
good forage abounded. We made about five miles more through a country of
this description and then halted for the night.

LOSE THE TRACKS. NATIVE GRAVE.

January 21.

We did not make more than seven miles before breakfast this morning,
being embarrassed both by high