ow hills of quartz; and a little beyond them we
crossed poor hills of the same rock bearing an open box-forest.

THE WOODS.

After travelling through a little scrub we descended on one of the most
beautiful spots I ever saw: The turf, the woods, and the banks of the
little stream which murmured through the vale had so much the appearance
of a well kept park that I felt loth to injure its surface by the passage
of our cartwheels. Proceeding for a mile and a half along the rivulet and
through a valley wholly of the same description, we at length encamped on
a flat of rich earth (nearly quite black) and where the anthisteria grew
in greater luxuriance than I had ever before witnessed in Australian
grasses. The earth indeed seemed to surpass in richness any that I had
seen in New South Wales; and I was even tempted to bring away a specimen
of it. Our dogs killed three kangaroos, and this good fortune was most
timely as I had that very morning thought it advisable to reduce the
allowance of rations.

July 10.

Tracing upwards the rivulet of the vale we left this morning we passed
over much excellent grassy land watered by it, the channel containing
some very deep ponds surrounded by the white-barked eucalyptus.

CROSS A RANGE.

A hill on its bank consisted of a conglomerate in which the ferruginous
matter predominated over the embedded fragments of quartz. The ground
beyond was hilly, and we at length ascended a ridge, apparently an
extremity of a higher range. On these hills grew the varieties of
eucalypti known in the colony, such as ironbark, bluegum, and
stringybark. The lower grounds were so wet and soft, and the watercourses
in them so numerous, that I was desirous to follow a ridge as long as it
would take us in the direction in which we were proceeding; and this
range answered well for the purpose. Its crest consisted of ferruginous
sandstone much inclined, the strike extending north-north-west. I found
the opposite side much more precipitous, and that it overlooked a much
lower country. In seeking a favourable line of descent for the carts, I
climbed a still higher forest-hill on the left, which consisted chiefly
of quartz-rock. I not only recognised from that hill some lofty points to
the eastward, and obtained angles on them, but I also perceived very
rugged summits of a range at a great distance in the south-west. Having
selected among the various hills and dales before me that line of route
which seemed t