only direction in which it was likely to be available to us, downwards,
at this time. Thermometer, at sunrise, 17°; at noon, 70°; at 4 P.M. 68°;
and at 9, 38°.

26TH MAY.--Taking with me two men and Yuranigh, mounted, I retraced my
former track to the westward, and on proceeding beyond the dry river bed,
where I had previously been, I entered amongst sandstone gullies, where
one grassy flat extended nearly in the direction I wished to pursue; and
this brought me to a sort of table-land, covered with an open forest of
iron-bark (with the common leaf). The rock consisted here of the same
felspathic sort characterising most of the hills of the Barwan basin; the
soil sterile, bearing, in lieu of the ordinary grass, the stiff, hard
leaved, glutinous TRIODIA PUNGENS. But this was better than scrub, and,
further on, I perceived through a forest on the western slopes, the blue
distance and yellow plains of an open country. As plains usually
accompany rivers, I believed I was approaching the river I was in search
of. We crossed a deep watercourse falling to the S.E.b.S., and entered on
a noble flat of firm rich soil, whereon grew luxuriantly, the ACACIA
PENDULA (not previously seen by us in that region), and the two best
kinds of grass, ANTHISTIRIA and PANICUM LOEVINODE. Then we came to a good
pond of water, with recent footmarks of natives, and, at about a mile
beyond, we reached the open downs. They extended eastward as far as we
could see between the range on the S., under which I had expected to find
the river, and the rocky country over which we had come. Westward, the
downs were bounded by several very picturesque isolated conical hills,--
the southern sandy ranges on the S., still continuing westward like a
limit to all this interior open country. Yet through that barrier the
river had found a course, and instead of its overlooking the river, I
found that the ground rose towards it, and I hastened four or five miles
further westward, in hopes still to see it beyond the open downs, but I