30th October.

Messrs. Burges, Walcott, and Bedart rode out this morning to examine the grassy hills on the south side of the Chapman River, and on their return reported the country to be of a generally good grassy character.

Natives steal frying-pan.

31st October.

Left the encampment at 8.0 a.m. and steering 200 degrees magnetic over alternately grassy and scrubby hills of granite sandstone, crossed the Chapman at 9.40.  Our course then lay nearly parallel to the river till noon; the land on the river was indifferent and thinly grassed, but rose into good grassy hills about a mile from the river.  We then entered a level scrubby plain, extending from the Victoria Range to the sea.  At 12.30 p.m. altered the course to 175 degrees magnetic, and at 1.5 to 139 degrees magnetic.  At 1.15 the plain became grassy, and the soil good (with the exception of a few patches of York gum, the only trees were wattles), and by a rough estimate contained about 8,000 acres of good grassy land; on the north bank of the Greenough River, which we reached at 3.15, the channel was about seventy yards wide, but dry and sandy; nor did we observe any sign of its having run during the past winter.  A little below where we struck the river it turned to the south-east; following it in that direction till 3.45 we bivouacked, obtaining a scanty supply of water by digging in the sand.  Shortly after halting, a party of about thirty natives came up, and appeared friendly; they told us that there was a fine spring at some distance to the westward, but we could not obtain any other useful information, as their dialect differs considerably from that spoken in the settled districts, although some few words are the same.  They encamped a short distance from us, and in the night stole our frying-pan, to dig a well, but returned it next morning before the theft was discovered.

The Irwin river.

1st November.

At 7.10 a.m. resumed our course south-east, along the eastern side of the grassy plain.  The scrubby hills gradually approached on each side; at 9.30 the good land terminated, the estimate being 2,000 acres on the south bank of the Greenough River.  The country then became sandy, producing little besides scrub and a few banksia trees.  At 10.0 passed about one mile west of Mount Hill; passed a small pool of water in a watercourse trending south-west.  At 12.50 p.m. altered the course to 170 degrees magnetic; at 3.0 entered a thick forest of York gum; at 3.25 changed the course to 130 degrees magnetic and entered a grassy flat extending to the Irwin River, which we reached at 3.55, and following it upwards till 4.15, bivouacked on the left bank in a large flat.  Shortly before reaching the river a large party of natives came up with us, after tracking the horses for some distance.  Seventy or eighty men came to the bivouac, and, with the exception of one man