and boiled them, and gave me the fluid to taste, which I
found so peculiarly bitter that I cautioned him against drinking it; his
natural desire, however, for warm beverage, which had been increased by a
whole day's travelling, induced him to swallow about a pint of it, which
made him very sick, and produced violent vomiting and purging during the
whole afternoon and night. The little I had tasted acted on me as a
lenient purgative, but Mr. Calvert, who had taken rather more than I did,
felt very sick. The gum of this Acacia was slightly acid, and very
harmless.

Oct. 30.--We travelled about four miles to the N.W. and N.N.W. along the
summit of rocky ranges, when a large valley bounded by high ranges to the
north and north-west, burst upon us. We descended into it by a steep and
rocky basaltic slope, and followed a creek which held a very tortuous
course to the south-west; we had travelled along it about seven miles,
when Charley was attracted by a green belt of trees, and by the late
burnings of the natives, and discovered a running rivulet, coming from
the N.N.W. It was fringed with Pandanus, Acacia (Inga monilifornis) and
with an arborescent Vitex, with ternate leaves. The flats were well
grassed, and lightly timbered with box and white-gum. On the flat summit
of the sandstone ranges, we observed the Melaleuca gum, the rusty gum,
the mountain Acacia, and Persoonia falcata, (R. Br.) The basaltic rock
was apparently confined to the upper part of the valley, where it had
broken through the sandstone, which composed all the ranges round our
camp, the latitude of which I observed to be 14 degrees 23 minutes 55
seconds. At our last camp, I observed a Platycercus, of the size of the
Moreton Bay Rosella, with blackfront, yellow shoulders, and sea-green
body; the female had not the showy colours of the male, and the young
ones were more speckled on the back. I believe it to be the Platycercus
Brownii, GOULD. A black and white Ptilotis, the only stuffed specimen of
which was taken by a kite almost out of Mr. Gilbert's hand, was very
frequent at the wells of the natives.

During the night, a great number of flying-foxes came to revel in the
honey of the blossoms of the gum trees. Charley shot three, and we made a
late but welcome supper of them. They were not so fat as those we had
eaten before, and tasted a little strong; but, in messes made at night,
it was always difficult to find out the cause of any particular taste, as
M