provisions
were exhausted. The week was out for which the last of our stock had been
issued in very small rations; and although most of the men had
endeavoured to make this very reduced week's allowance to last them nine
days no mutton remained, nor could it well have been preserved during
such hot weather. This kangaroo would have been therefore a most welcome
addition to our store; but we had no dogs and I was so anxious as to
venture a shot at too great a distance and to our great disappointment it
escaped. We finally encamped in a valley which fell to the right or
eastward, near some good ponds, and after performing a journey of upwards
of 15 miles. I found near the hill I first ascended in the morning a new
kind of grass with large seeds.*

(*Footnote. Danthonia eriantha, Lindley manuscripts; panicula
subcoarctata lanceolata, spiculis sub-4-floris gluma laevi multo
brevioribus, palea exteriori laevigata basi apiceque villosissima,
aristis lateralibus subulatis debilibus intermedia brevioribus, foliis
setaceis vaginisque patentim pilosis, collo barbato.)

October 22.

Soon after we set out this morning we approached a range of barren hills
of clay-slate on which grew the grass tree (xanthorrhoea) and stunted
eucalypti. On ascending this range I perceived before me a deep ravine,
and beyond it hills less promising than even these which were
sufficiently repulsive to travellers with wheel-carriages. Turning
therefore from that hopeless prospect towards the eastward, we crossed
the head of a valley falling to the right, and after a somewhat tortuous
course we gained the highest part of a range beyond it, from which a
grassy vale descended on the opposite side towards the north-east. This
vale turned to the left after we had followed it 2 1/4 miles and we next
crossed a ridge of quartz rock.

CATTLE TRACKS FOUND.

Beyond the ridge the natives found some old cattle tracks and this
intelligence very much pleased and encouraged the men.

BURNETT'S RIVULET.

At two miles farther on we came upon a little rivulet flowing to the
westward through a good grassy valley, and it was joined about the place
where we came upon it by one coming from the south. The stream washed the
base of a lofty mountain which I ascended while the people were passing
our carts, cattle, and equipment across the rivulet which I named after
my trusty follower Burnett.* The mountain consisted of granite and was so
smooth that I could ride to its