12TH MAY.--I took a ride in the direction where I hoped to find a river
flowing towards the interior, according to my observations at Mount
Bindango. I rode over an open plain, or open forest country, soon found
the dells marked by water-courses, and, at length, the channel of a
river, with the Yarra trees. Following this new channel downwards a short
way, I found the beds of the ponds moist, and seven emus, running from
one a-head of me, first indicated the situation of a large pond; from
which three wood-ducks also waddled away as I approached it. This water
was only fifteen miles from where I had left the party encamped, to which
I hastened back with the tidings of a discovery that was likely to
expedite so much our momentous journey. Thermometer, at sunrise, 30°; at
noon, 81°; at 4 P. M., 59°; at 9, 52°;--with wet bulb, 51°. Height above
the sea, 1168 feet.

13TH MAY.--I buried a letter here for Mr. Kennedy. This day the party
crossed the dividing ground, which I found to be elevated only 1563 feet
above the sea, and consisting, as already stated, of fine open grassy
downs, sprinkled with Acacia pendula and other shrubs. One or two knolls
projected, however, and resembled islands in a sea of grass. I rode to
one and found it consisted wholly of trap-rock in nodules. This was the
first trap I had seen during the journey beyond the Barwan, and from
their aspect I thought that other minor features of the mountains
Bindango and Bindyègo, which I had not leisure to examine then, also
consisted of this rock. The little knoll I did visit, was about one
hundred yards in diameter at its base on the plains, and was covered with
trees wholly different from those in the adjacent forest, namely,
CALLITRIS PYRAMIDALIS, EUCALYPTUS (Iron-bark species), etc. We next
descended to a separate system of drainage, apparently falling to the
north-west. Instead of following rivers upwards, as we had hitherto been