st, a native of the country.* He
said he had been seventy miles down the river in search of a run for his
cattle; but had found none; and he assured me that, without the aid of
the blacks who were with him on horseback, he could not have obtained
water.

(*Footnote. Mr. James Collits of Mount York.)

Mount Amyot had the appearance of granite from the plains, but I found
that it consisted of the ferruginous sandstone. It is the southern
extremity of a long ridge elevated not more than 200 feet above the
plains at its base. We encamped at a bend of the river, on the border of
a small plain named Merumba in latitude 33 degrees 19 minutes 16 seconds
South. Variation 8 degrees 54 minutes 15 seconds East.

We were here disturbed by herds of cattle running towards our spare
bullocks and mixing with them and the horses. In no district have I seen
cattle so numerous as all along the Lachlan; and notwithstanding the very
dry season, they were nearly all in good condition. We found this day,
near the river bed, a new herbaceous indigo with white flowers and pods
like those of the prickly liquorice (Glycyrrhiza echinata).*

(*Footnote. I. acantho carpa, Lindley manuscripts; caule herbaceo erecto
ramisque angulatis scabriusculis, foliis pinnatis 5-jugis
viscido-pubescentibus; foliolis lineari-lanceolatis mucronulatis margine
scabris, racemis folio aequalibus, leguminibus subrotundo-ovalibus
compressis mucronatis echinatis monospermis.)

March 29.

Our next point was Mount Cunningham (Beery birree of the natives) and we
travelled towards it along the margin of Field's Plains as the angles of
the river allowed.

CRACKS IN THE SURFACE.

This was our straightest course, but we had to keep along the riverbank
for another reason. The plains were full of deep cracks and holes so that
the cart wheels more than once sunk into them, and thus detained us for
nearly an hour. A sagacious black advised us to keep near the riverbank,
and we found the ground better. We encamped at half-past two o'clock,
after a journey of ten miles; and I immediately set out, accompanied by a
native and a man carrying my theodolite, both on horseback, for the
highest or northern point of Mount Cunningham (a). The distance was full
five miles; yet we could not proceed direct on horseback, the scorched
plains being full of deep, wide cracks; and we were therefore compelled
to take a circuitous route nearer the river.

ASCEND MOUNT CUNNINGHAM.

There our