its southern base, while a considerable tributary from the north-east passed close under it to the north-west.  To the north of our position the country rose into a succession of stony ridges thinly grassed and nearly destitute of trees; in the valleys the kangaroo grass was tolerably plentiful and quite green—­a sufficient evidence that we had now arrived within the influence of the rains that had produced the recent inundation, which gave us every hope of being able to push across the country intervening between this and the Gascoyne.  We accordingly altered our course to north-west for the remainder of this and the following day, crossing several tributaries to the Murchison, in which we found plenty of water, and on their banks an abundant supply of grass for our horses, the streams being generally divided from each other by low stony ridges or plains of red sandy loam, yielding a rather scanty supply of grass.

3rd May.

Having rested the party the previous day, it being Sunday, in latitude 25 degrees 33 minutes 48 seconds, at a fine pool of fresh water in a stream running south, and apparently tributary to the Murchison, we resumed our course for three or four miles up a branch of the stream upon which we had been encamped, which terminated at a gentle stony ascent; another mile brought us to its summit, which proved to be the watershed between the Gascoyne and Murchison; its elevation was found to be 1,500 feet above the sea.  From this ridge a short descent northward led us to the head of a watercourse, which we followed in the same direction for seventeen miles, augmented by several small tributaries; turning to the westward, it formed a junction with another river coming from the eastward, in latitude 25 degrees 14 minutes 23 seconds, at an elevation of 1,144 feet above the sea.

Stony plains.

The country through which we had passed was a nearly level and barren plain, evenly and closely paved with small stones, amongst which a few stunted acacia found a precarious existence; to this portion of country we gave the characteristic name of Macadam Plains.

Gascoyne river.

4th May.

The river we had encamped upon the preceding night had a level sandy channel thirty-five yards wide, with several shallow pools in its bed; a narrow belt of flooded-gum lined either bank, which also produced abundance of excellent feed; several of the grasses were new to us, yielding a large quantity of seed; further back the pasture was more scanty, and of an inferior variety of grass, the trees consisting almost entirely of small hakea or acacia.

The features of the country are generally very tame, with the exception of a prominent hill of considerable altitude, nearly twenty miles to the northward, to which we gave the name of Mount Gascoyne.  The summit of another range, of less elevation, a little to the northward of west, distant fifteen miles, was called Mount Puckford.