which the country was poor and sandy, with pandanus growing on the ridges.  On the bank of the creek we observed the marks of a recent camp of a large party of blacks, and a patch of ground twenty yards by thirty yards cleared of grass, and the surface scraped up into ridges, the whole covered with footprints, which showed that some dance or ceremony had been performed by a large number of men.  At 3.30 p.m. entered a dense scrub of small crooked eucalypti and acacia, with a few sterculia.  After losing an hour in attempting to penetrate the scrub, we turned north to the dry creek and followed it down till 7.0 p.m., when we camped near a pool of water; but the night was so dark that the horses could not be watered with safety, the banks being very steep and rendered slippery by a slight shower.

25th October.

The grass having been burnt near the camp, the horses had strayed considerably, and we did not start till 7.30 a.m., when, turning east, we soon came on the Burdekin, which now trended to the south-south-west and south-east; the basalt coming close to the river, we were compelled to cross a very rough ridge and came on a deep pool of water eighty yards wide and half a mile long; it terminated in a dry stony channel which joined a sandy creek, and entered the river.  Crossing a granite ridge, we camped in a fine grassy flat on the bank of the Burdekin, the banks being high and steep, but the water easy of access.

Latitude by a Pegasi 19 degrees 58 minutes 48 seconds.

26th October (Sunday).

Remained at the camp.  During the day there was a succession of showers without thunder, the clouds and wind from the east.  At 10.0 p.m. the rain ceased, but the night continued cloudy.

Good grassy country.

27th October.

The morning was cloudy, with light rain till 7.0 a.m.; at 7.30 steered east-south-east and east over fine grassy ridges of granite and trap formation, timbered with ironbark, box, Moreton-Bay ash, and bloodwood; the river taking a sweep to the north of the track, but at 10.40 came again on its banks.  The course was now south till 2.15 p.m., when we crossed a large stream-bed from the south-west, with a sandy and rocky bed forty yards wide, which contained a few shallow pools of water.  Below the junction of this tributary the river turned to the east and east-north-east, and we crossed low ridges of granite porphyry and trap, which came down from the high land to the bank of the river; at 3.30 encamped.  The whole of the country traversed this day was well grassed, except about a mile of bauhinia scrub, which did not appear of any considerable extent.  Ironbark, box, bloodwood, and Moreton-Bay ash formed the principal trees with which the country was openly timbered.  The prevailing rock granite, traversed by numerous veins of dark trap, and in the latter part of the day porphyry and schist appeared; concretions of limestone were frequent near the trap veins.  The soil was somewhat light and gritty loam, except on the trap-rocks, where it was rich black soil.  The available country here appears more extensive than higher up the river; more rain has fallen in the early part of the season, and the grass is rich and green, especially where it had been previously burnt off.