perceived woody ridges on all sides, but all apparently sloping from the
south-west; and a misty valley beyond the nearest of them in the
northeast, like the line of the Balonne. But the most interesting sight
to me then, was that of blue pics at a great distance to the north-west,
the object of all my dreams of discovery for years. No white man had
before seen these. There we might hope to find the DIVISA AQUARUM, still
undiscovered; the pass to Carpentaria, still unexplored: I called this
hill Mount First View, and descended, delighted with what I had seen from
its rocky crest. The sides were covered with Malga scrub. The rock was
felspathic, apparently allied to those already seen in the Balonne. Lat.
27° 2' 57" S. Thermometer, at sunrise, 45°; at 4 P. M., 68°; at 9 P. M.,
45°;--with wet bulb, 43°.

4TH MAY.--An Australian morning is always charming,--amid these scenes of
primaeval nature it seemed exquisitely so. The BARITA? or GYMNORHINA, the
organ-magpie, was here represented by a much smaller bird, whose notes,
resembling the softest breathings of a flute, were the only sounds that
met the ear. What the stillness of even adds to such sounds in other
climes, is felt more intensely in the stillness of morning in this. "The
rapture of repose that's there" gratifies every sense; the perfume of the
shrubs, of those even that have recently been burnt, and the tints and
tones of the landscape, accord with the soft sounds. The light red tints
of the ANTHISTIRIA, the brilliant green of the MIMOSA, the white stems of
the EUCALYPTUS, and the deep grey shadows of early morning, still
slumbering about the woods, are blended and contrasted in the most
pleasing harmony. The forms in the soft landscape are equally fine, from
the wild fantastic tufting of the Eucalyptus, and its delicate willow-
like ever-drooping leaf, to the prostrate trunks of ancient trees, the
mighty ruins of the vegetable world. Instead of autumnal tints, there is
a perpetual blending of the richest hues of autumn with the most