ssed this morning at its
junction with the river, into which it flows in two channels, about
60 or 70 miles from the point where the brothers first struck it on
the 12th of November, while searching for a road to the northward.
Its total width is about 120 yards. The general course of the river
was slightly to the north of west, but very winding, some of its
reaches extended for nearly four miles. Numerous ana-branches
occurred, the flats separating them, being three miles in breadth,
timbered with flooded box and tea-tree, their banks well grassed. It
would be a dangerous country to be caught in by the floods. Two
parties of blacks were passed fishing on the river, but they took no
notice of the party, and were of course not interfered with. They
used reed spears pointed with four jagged prongs, and also hooks and
lines. Their hooks are made with wood barbed with bone, and the
lines of twisted currejong bark. Distance travelled to-day 10 miles.
The Camp XXXIII. in latitude 16 degrees 27 minutes 30 seconds.

'December' 2.--The river was travelled down through similar country
for eleven miles, when the party reached the head of the tide, and
camped on a rocky water hole in an ana-branch, the river water not
being drinkable. The course was to the southward of west. It was
now beyond a doubt, even to Mr. Richardson, that this river was not
the Mitchell, for neither its latitude, direction, or description
corresponded with Leichhardt's account. It was also perceived that
the longitude of the starting point must have been incorrect, and
very considerably to the westward, as their reckoning, carefully
checked, brought them much too near the coast. The Brothers
therefore became satisfied of what they had long believed, that they
had never been on the Lynd at all, or even on its watershed, and that
what they were on was an independent stream. They therefore named it
the "Ferguson,' in honor of Sir George Ferguson Bowen, Governor of
Queensland, but there is little doubt that it is the Staaten of the
Dutch navigators, or at least its southern branch. Should a northern
branch eventually be discovered, which the delta and numerous
ana-branches make a probable hypothesis, the stream explored by the
brothers might with propriety retain the name they gave it. At eight
miles from the start the character of the country changed from the
prevailing flats, to a kind of barren sandstone and spenifex ridges.
On pitching the ca