y-five feet high, the soil
consisting of a red earth similar to that on the interior plains and the
banks of the Murray.

MOUNT TRAFALGAR. RUGGED COUNTRY STILL BEFORE US.

October 21.

At five miles we were abreast of a pointed hill which I ascended and
named Mount Trafalgar in honour of that memorable day. From it I obtained
a view of the country before us, and I perceived in the direction of our
intended route some high cone-shaped hills. A ridge extended from them to
the westward, but its height seemed gradually to diminish in that
direction, although it presented two very abrupt and remarkable hills
whose steepest side being towards the north overlooked as I supposed the
spacious basin of the Murrumbidgee. One solitary mount appeared much
farther to the westward and was also steep-sided towards the north. On
descending I shaped my course towards the hollow where the ridge could be
most easily crossed. At 8 3/4 miles we met with some good ponds of water
and beyond them the winding channel of a smaller watercourse falling
southward from the range already mentioned. After crossing and recrossing
this channel and its various branches we at length gained the crest of
the range, and I directed the party to halt while I hastened to a conical
summit on the left, apparently the highest and most pointed of those
previously observed. It consisted of syenite and from it I obtained a
very extensive view to the northward, but yet could not see any
favourable opening in the direction in which I wished to reach the
Murrumbidgee: on the contrary as we reduced our distance from home the
obstacles to our reaching it seemed to increase.

PROVISIONS NEARLY EXHAUSTED.

Our provisions had been counted out to a day, and any delay beyond the
time required to cross that country at our usual rate of travelling might
have been attended with great inconvenience. Mr. Stapylton's party, then
so far behind, were depending upon us for supplies; while a labyrinth of
mountains, entirely without roads or inhabitants, was to be crossed in a
limited time with carts before any such supplies could be obtained and
sent back. Some high and distant mountains appeared to the eastward, and
in the west I intersected the hills I had previously seen which were now
much nearer to us. On returning from the hill to the party we descended
from the range into some flats of good open land where a solitary
kangaroo became an object of intense interest now that our