like white limestone. At this water we made another stop, and started at
12.20 p.m. At 1.3 made one mile and three-quarters south-south-west,
where we sighted the first hills we have seen since leaving the depot. We
went on the plain a quarter of a mile south-west by south to get
observations of the hills. They appeared to be twenty or thirty miles
distant. Started again at 1.37, with Fisherman, following the rest of the
party, who had gone on; and at 1.58 made three-quarters of a mile
south-west by west. At 2.6 a quarter of a mile south to a dry creek,
which we crossed. 2.40 we reached Macadam Creek in one mile and a half in
a south by east direction, where we overtook our companions. At 3 we went
in search of water up Macadam Creek three-quarters of a mile south. We
stopped to have a drink, and although the water from the leather bottles
was full of impurities we found it agreeable to our parched palates. We
started again at 3.20, and made south-west one mile to Gregory's River,
where we formed our seventh camp. The river is here a quarter of a mile
wide, running strong in two channels. It is uncrossable for horses, and
the intervening parts are crowded with fine large weeping tea-trees,
large Leichhardt-trees, tall cabbage-palm, pandanus, and other trees. It
is the finest and greenest-looking inland river I have seen in Australia,
and the country it runs through consists of rich-soiled plains, just
sufficiently wooded for pastoral purposes. Since we left the depot we
have not seen any country on which sheep would not do well, excepting
during the wettest and driest seasons. In country such as this it is a
singular fact that sheep do better, on the whole, in a wet season than on
ridgy country. With one exception, where the soil was clayey, the country
we have seen on this river is of the very richest description. At present
it is parched up, with the exception of a few patches of young grass near
the river. In many places the old grass is three feet high.
Notwithstanding the parched state of the grass, the horses have done well
upon it, indeed they could not look better if they had been corn-fed.