within twenty miles of the hill that had terminated my excursion, and as I
hoped that a more leisurely survey of the country from its summit would
open something favourable to our view, I struck over for it, though
eventually obliged to return. From it Mr. Hume and I rode to the S.W.
mountain, a distance of about forty miles, without crossing a brook or a
creek, our way leading through dense acacia brushes, and for the most part
over a desert. We saw high lands from this mountain, which exceeds 1,300
feet in elevation, and is of sandstone formation, and thickly covered with
stunted pine, in eight different points--the bearings of which are as
follows:--

Oxley's Table Land, N. 40 E., distant 40 miles.
Kengall Hill, due E. very distant.
Conical Hill, S. 60 E.
Highland, S.E. distance 30 miles.
Highland, S. 30 E. distance 25 miles.
Long Range, S. 16 E. distance 60 miles.
Long Range, S. 72 W. distance 60 miles.
Distant Range, S. 25 W. supposed.

It was in vain, however, that we looked for water. The country to the
north-west, was low and unbroken, and alternated with wood and plain.

The country from New Year's Range to the hill I had made, and which I
called Oxley's Table Land, had been very fair, with good soil in many
places, but with a total want of water, except in the creeks, wherein the
supply was both bad and uncertain; on our second day's journey from the
former, we came to the creek on which we were moving, where it had a
coarse granite bottom. The country around it improved very much in
appearance, and there was abundance of good grass on the surface of it, in
spite of the drought. On the right of this creek, a large plain stretches
parallel to it for many miles, varying in quality of soil. Near Oxley's
Table Land, we passed over open forest, the prevailing timber of which was
box. I have placed Oxley's Table Land in latitude 29 degrees 57 minutes
30 seconds, longitude 145 degrees 43 minutes 30 seconds.

Finding it impracticable to move westward from the hill I again descended
on the creek, whose general course was to the north-west, in which
direction we at length struck upon a river whose appearance raised our
most sanguine expectations. It flowed round an angle from the north-east
to the north-west, and extended in longitude five reaches as far as we
could see. At that place it was about sixty yards broad, with banks of
from thirty to forty feet high, and it had numerous wild fowl and many
pelicans on