12th October.

Started at 6.35 a.m., following the river, the general course being north-north-east; no change was observed in its character.  At 11.20 halted to rest the horses, and again started at 1.40 p.m.  At 3.40 came on a large party of natives at a fresh water pool; five followed us some miles, and were not to be satisfied until we had made an exchange of part of a handkerchief for a quantity of noolban, some dowaks, and dabbas, some of which we accepted as a token of our friendly intentions.  The stream-bed turned east, and we followed it until 6.0, when we were halted for the night, having the good fortune to find a little fresh water by digging in the sand in the bed of the river, the pools being all brackish.

Return to depot camp.

13th October.

At 6.15 a.m., we were again in our saddles, and continued journey up the river—­the general course north-north-east.  In vain we looked for some rising ground or hill from which we might obtain a view of the country, but the same sandy level, covered with dense thickets of wattles, still met the eye till 11.0, when we observed a low sandstone cliff forming the eastern side of the valley.  In this direction we steered, and after pushing through thickets of wattle growing on stony ground, with small patches of salsolaceous plants, we arrived at the foot of the cliff, which was about sixty feet in height, of white sandstone, full of rounded quartz pebbles.  The top was nearly on a level with the general plane of the country, which was of a most cheerless aspect.  The valley of the river trended to the north-north-east for eight or ten miles, then to the east; the width appeared about five miles, and one dense thicket of wattles seemed to fill the entire space.  The rest of the country was, without the slightest exception, level in the extreme, covered with one universal thicket of acacia and cypress, the latter indicating the sandy nature of the soil.  As no appearance of change in the character of the country within twenty or thirty miles was visible, and we had only two days’ provisions left (not having expected the stream to extend so far), and the camp at sixty miles distant, we were obliged to leave the farther examination of the river to some future explorers; but we regretted it the less as, from the nature of the gravel and sand brought down by the stream, there seemed great probability that it takes its rise in large salt marshes similar to those known to exist 100 miles east of the Irwin, if it does not actually drain them, as the general trend of the most northerly marshes seen was in the direction of the upper part of the Murchison.  Under these circumstances, we returned to our bivouac of last night, reaching it at 5.40 p.m.

14th October.

Started at 6.25 a.m., and retracing our route down the river, came to our bivouac of the 11th at 5.5 p.m. without any incident worthy of notice, but surprising three or four natives asleep in the bed of the stream; they were of the party seen on our route up the river.