urned to our right at 2 1/2 miles on an east by south course, and
followed along its banks, until it again trended too much to the south.
We crossed alluvial flats of considerable extent, on which there was an
abundance of grass. Just at the point at which we turned from the creek,
we ascended a small sand hill, covered with the amaryllis, then
beautifully in flower. The latitude of this little hill, from which the
cliffs on the most northern reach of the Murray bore N. 170 degrees E.
distant four miles, was 33 degrees 57 minutes 11 seconds; so that the
Murray does not extend northwards beyond latitude 34 degrees 1 minutes or
thereabouts. We again struck the creek, the course of which had been
marked by gum-trees, at six miles, and were forced by it to the N.E., but
ultimately turned it and descended southwards to the river; but as we
were cut off from it we encamped on a lagoon of great length, backed by
hills of a yellow and white colour, the rock being a soft and friable
sandstone, slightly encrusted with salt. We had, shortly before we
halted, passed a salt lagoon in the centre of one of the grassy flats,
but such anomalies are not uncommon in the valley of the Murray. That
part of the river which I have described, from the point where we shot
the bullock to this lagoon, appeared to me admirably adapted for a cattle
station, and has since been occupied as such.

As I have observed, the lagoon on which we encamped was backed by hills
of 150 or 200 feet elevation, which were covered with thick brush wood.
The flat between us and these hills was unusually barren, and all the
trees at the side of the lagoon were dead. Whether this was owing to
there being salt in the ground or to some other cause, there was here but
little grass for the cattle to eat, so that, although they were watched,
twenty of them managed to crawl away, and we were consequently delayed
above an hour and a half after our usual hour of starting, and commenced
our day's journey wanting two of our complement, but we stumbled upon
them in passing through the brush, in which they were very comfortably
lying down. We travelled for about six miles through a miserable
undulating country of sand and scrub. At noon we were abreast of a little
sandy peak that was visible from our camp, and is a prominent feature
hereabouts. This peak Mr. Browne and I ascended, though very little to
our gratification, for the view from it was as usual over a sea of scrub
to what