over three-and-a-half
miles of ground: the bed of the creek, by which alone they could
travel was intersected every 300 or 400 yards by bars formed of
granite boulders, some of which were from 25 to 30 feet high, and
their interstices more like a quarry than anything else; over these
the cattle had to be driven in two and sometimes three lots, and were
only travelled 8 miles with great difficulty. There were several
casualties; "Lucifer," one of the best of the horses cut his foot so
badly, as to make it uncertain whether he could be fetched on; and
two unfortunate cows fell off the rocks, and were smashed to pieces.
The cows were beginning to calve very fast, and when the calves were
unable to travel, they had to be destroyed, which made the mothers
stray from the camp to where they had missed them; one went back in
this manner the previous night, but it was out of the question to
ride thirty miles after her over the stones they had traversed. The
camp was made in the bed of Parallel Creek, at a spot where there was
a little grass, the whole stage having been almost without any. Here
the basaltic wall was over 80 feet in height, hemming them in from
the west; on some parts during the day it closed in on both sides.
An observation at night made the latitude 17 degrees 51 minutes. A
curious fishwas caught to-day--it had the appearance of a cod,
whose head and tail had been drawn out, leaving the body round.
(Camp VIII.)

'October', 18.--Another severe stage, still down the bed of
Parallel Creek, from which indeed there was no issue. Frank Jardine
describes it as a "pass or gorge, through the range which abuts on
each side through perpendicular cliffs, filling it up with great
blocks of stone," and adding that "a few more days of similar country
would bring their horses to a standstill." Their backs and the feet
of the cattle were in a woeful plight from its effects: one horse
was lost, and a bull and several head of cattle completely knocked
up. Bad as yesterday's journey was, this day's beat it; they managed
to travel ten miles over the most villanous country imaginable, with
scarcely a vestage of grass, when the camp was again pitched in the
bed of the creek. A large number of natives were seen to-day--one
mob was disturbed at a waterhole, where they were cooking fish, which
they left in their alarm, together with their arms. The spears were
the first that had been observed made of reed, and a stone tomahaw