yesterday.  To the south only a few distant hills were visible, the view being obstructed by trees.  The flats on the banks of the river are well grassed and openly timbered with ironbark, Moreton-Bay ash, bloodwood, and poplar gum; the soil varying from a soft brown loam into which our horses sank deeply, to a firm black or brown clay loam; the ranges were stony and thinly grassed; the timber box and ironbark.  The geological features consist of a fine-grained sandstone interstratified with slate and coarse conglomerates.  The sandstone is intersected in every direction with veins of quartz, which do not appear to enter the slate.  The dip of the strata is nearly vertical, the strike north and south.  The whole appear to have been much disturbed and altered; neither granite nor trap has been observed since yesterday morning.  Consumed the last of the dried horse-meat, and increased the ration of flour to one pound per diem.

19th October (Sunday).

Remained at the camp to rest the party; the day was cloudy, with variable breeze from the south-east to north-east and north; no observations for latitude could be taken till early on Monday morning, and even then the altitudes were imperfect; the stream of running water in the bed of the river has increased, but is still quite clear.

Latitude by Saturn 19 degrees 7 minutes 19 seconds.

Cross the Clark river.

20th October.

Resumed our journey at 6.40 a.m., steering south-east through fine grassy flats till 10.0, when we crossed the Clark River, and altered the course to east over well-grassed flats, to the foot of a rocky range of sandstone hills, which we reached at noon, and ascending by a steep spur, at 2.30 p.m. attained the highest ridge; here sandstone was the prevailing rock; xanthorrhoea, silver-leafed ironbark, and triodia constituted the principal vegetation; descending gradually, at 3.30 reached a small creek with a patch of good green grass on its banks, and at 3.45 halted at some small waterholes, which appeared to be permanent; except near the creek, the country was poor and stony, with a forest of ironbark and box trees; the country between the Clark and the Burdekin appears to be of excellent quality, consisting of well-grassed flats, timbered with ironbark, Moreton-Bay ash, poplar, gum, and box trees.  The Clark is about 100 yards wide, with a sandy bed crossed by ridges of slate rock; the banks are sixty to eighty feet high, and the marks of last year’s flood thirty to thirty-five feet, the trees being bent and broken by the force of the current; more water appears to come down the Clark during floods, but the Burdekin has a more constant stream, the Clark containing only shallow pools of water, separated by dry sand and rock; after leaving the immediate flats of the river the country was very poor and stony; the late rains had not extended so far, and the grass had the dry and parched appearance which characterised the country on the banks of the Gilbert.