29th April.

A few miles nearly north brought us to where a considerable tributary joins the Murchison from the north, the river trending first north-east, then east, and finally towards the afternoon it came from the southward of east, our bivouac being only seven miles north of the previous night, while we had made nearly eighteen miles of easting.  The bed of the river had gradually become more rocky as we ascended, gneiss with quartz dykes passing through it and yielding a large quantity of salt, rendered the running water of the river scarcely drinkable; the only fresh water was found in the back channels filled by the late inundations.  The ranges which ran parallel to the river to the westward terminated some miles to the north of the bend.  Another range, apparently granitic and broken up into detached peaks, commencing a little to the eastward of its termination, runs east for about twenty miles at the distance of six or seven miles from the north bank of the river.

To the eastward an elevated range with two conspicuous summits, which were respectively named Mount Matthew and Mount Hale, terminated the view in that direction, while to the south only a few detached peaks were visible.

To-day we first observed a very beautiful convolvulus, which we afterwards found to bear roots like a sweet potato, some of them more than a pound weight and well flavoured, forming a very important article of food to the natives.  The flowers are numerous, and measure from two to three inches in diameter, their outer edges of a dark lilac, deepening to a rich purple at the centre, with a pale green convolute ribbing on the outside, the stem and leaf of the plant resembling the kennedya.  Mr. Drummond, to whom I have described it, considers it an important discovery, as by cultivation it might become a valuable addition to our Australian esculents.

A small species of rock-melon was also found in great abundance about the size of a pigeon’s egg, somewhat bitter to the taste, but they were not ripe; in other respects it much resembles the cultivated varieties.

The bed of the river at this night’s bivouac had attained an elevation of 1,240 feet above the sea.

Leave the Murchison for the Gascoyne river.

30th April.

Finding that the Murchison was leading us too much to the eastward, the object of the expedition being to reach the Gascoyne with as little delay as possible, we quitted the river on a north-north-east course for about eight miles over a tolerably grassy plain, in some parts open, with atriplex and samphire, and in others rather thickly studded with acacia and melaleuca.  Ascending a granite hill of 150 feet elevation, the plain was observed to the eastward to extend to the horizon, only broken by one remarkable bold trap hill at the distance of twenty miles, which was eventually named Mount Gould, the main Murchison flowing round