June 28.--This morning we passed through a country of an inferior
description, making a short stage to a watercourse, named by me the
"Crystal Brook;" it was a pretty stream emanating from the hills to the
north-east, and marked in its whole course through the plains to the
northward and westward by lines of gum-trees. The pure bright water ran
over a bed of clear pebbles, with a stream nine feet wide, rippling and
murmuring like the rivulets of England--a circumstance so unusual in the
character of Australian watercourses, that it interested and pleased the
whole party far more than a larger river would have done; this
characteristic did not, however, long continue, for like all the streams
we had lately crossed, the water ceased to flow a short distance beyond
our crossing place.

The country below us, like that through which the Rocky river took its
course, was open and of an inferior description, but I have no doubt that
by tracing the stream upwards, towards its source among the ranges, a
good and well watered country would be found; I ascertained the latitude
by a meridian altitude at Crystal brook to be 33 degrees 18 minutes 7
seconds S.

The hills on the opposite side of Spencer's Gulf were now plainly
visible, and one which appeared to be inland, I took to be the middle
Back mountain of Flinders; between our camp and the eastern shores of the
gulf, the land was generally low, with a good deal of scrub upon it, and
nearer the shores appeared to be swampy, and subject to inundation by the
tides.

June 29.--Upon moving from our camp this morning we commenced following
under Flinders range. From Crystal brook, the hills rise gradually in