Latitude by Aldebaran and Capella 16 degrees 25 minutes 12 seconds.

14th January.

Followed the river to the west-south-west, crossing two large tributary creeks from the north-west, approaching the sandstone ranges on the western side of the plain; the soil did not improve, but became very sandy; the country is thinly wooded with box-trees and bauhinia of small size; grass is abundant and good.  At noon one of the pack-horses, Sam, knocked up, and his load being transferred to one of the riding-horses, he was left to rest while we sought a suitable spot for a camp, and at 12.15 p.m. halted at a small gully, as the bank of the river was unsafe for the horses, being very boggy.  Sent back for the horse Sam, and brought him to camp; ascended the hill to the north-west of the camp to take bearings, but no important features of the country were visible; in ascending the hill the aneroid (B) fell from 29.62 to 28.55 degrees, and on descending only rose to 28.80 degrees, the estimated height being 300 feet; as this indicated a change in form of the metal of the instrument, I re-adjusted it to the aneroid (A), 29.45 degrees.  The continuance of fine weather and forward state of the grass led to the supposition that the wet season had already terminated, though only two months have elapsed since the first rains.  It is probable that the wet season is much shorter in the interior than on the coast, and at no great distance inland the tropical wet season will cease altogether, as Captain Sturt, in latitude 26 degrees, only observed a fall of rain in the month of August; but this might be exceptional, as in the case of Dr. Leichhardt, who never encountered a rainy season during the journey to Port Essington.

Latitude by Aldebaran and Capella 16 degrees 27 minutes 20 seconds.

15th January.

Started at 6.45 a.m. and followed the river to the west-south-west; the hills coming close to the bank for some miles, caused the journey to be slow and difficult; crossed two large creeks coming from the west-north-west, the second seventy yards wide; at 10.35 encamped in a fine grassy flat.  The course of the river was now more from the south, and the valley expanded into a plain several miles wide.

16th January.

As several of the horses required a day’s rest, at 6.0 a.m.  I started with Mr. H. Gregory to examine the country to the southward, and followed the river through a fine grassy plain till 10.0, when it entered the sandstone ranges, and the valley contracted to half a mile; the hills were steep, but the level ground in the valley, except where intersected by gullies, was good travelling and well grassed.  The river is much reduced in size and the water is confined to the smaller channels of the principal bed; the water is clear, and had not that muddy appearance which characterises it lower down.  The geological character of the rocks is unchanged; but the bed of the river being less deeply excavated, the lower beds of limestone and jasper are not so largely developed, the summit of the hills are not quite as level, and large blocks of sandstone, the remains of an upper stratum, gives the country a very rugged appearance.  Returned to the camp at 6.30 p.m.  In the evening there was a heavy thunder-squall from the north, but the weather cleared at midnight.