, bounded the
valley of the creek I had left; another fine range was seen to the
eastward. Following a gully, we descended into the valley of a creek
flowing to the southward, and which probably joined the creek I had left
below the place of our last encampment. In the lower part of the gully,
we came upon some fine Nymphaea ponds and springs surrounded by ferns.
The whole valley, though narrow, was beautifully grassed. Trichodesma,
Grewia, Crinum, and the trefoil of the Suttor, grew on the flats; the
apple-gum, rusty-gum, the mountain Acacia and Fusanus, the last in
blossom, grew on the ridges.

The rock was a baked sandstone; in the pebbles of the creek I found the
impressions of bivalves (one ribbed like Cardium).

Our bullocks had become so foot-sore, and were so oppressed by the
excessive heat, that it was with the greatest difficulty we could prevent
them from rushing into the water with their loads. One of them--that
which carried the remainder of my botanical collection--watched his
opportunity, and plunged into a deep pond, where he was quietly swimming
about and enjoying himself, whilst I was almost crying with vexation at
seeing all my plants thoroughly soaked.

Nov. 5.--We travelled in all about eleven miles N. 55 degrees W. to
latitude 13 degrees 50 minutes. After following the creek, on which we
had encamped, to its head, we passed over a scrubby stringy-bark forest;
and, whenever we came to watercourses going to the eastward, we turned to
the north-west and westward. We passed several sandstone hills and ridges
rising out of this sandy table land, and attempted to cross one of them,
but our path was intercepted by precipices and chasms, forming an
insurmountable barrier to our cattle. We, therefore, followed a
watercourse to the southward, winding between two ranges to the westward
and southward, and continued again to the north-west, which brought us to
a tributary of the creek we had just left, and in which we found large
water-holes covered with Nymphaeas and Villarsias.

The strata of the range which we ascended, dipped to the south-west; in
which direction I saw a high range, probably the continuation of the one
I had observed at yesterday's stage along Roper's Creek.

The Melaleuca-gum, the Cypress-pine, Fusanus and Banksia abounded in the
stringy-bark forest, and along the creeks; and the flats round the
water-holes were covered with a dark green sedge, which, however, our
cattle did not relis