ground was stony and covered with stunted acacia, but it very quickly changed into a rich clayey loam, yielding a splendid crop of kangaroo and other grasses, melons, and small white convolvulus, yielding a round black seed the size of a pea, which we found scattered over nearly the whole surface of the plain for miles together.  In the lower parts of the flat rainwater appeared to have remained in shallow clay-pans until very recently, killing much of the grass, which was replaced by atriplex bushes.  As we approached the foot of the range the ground became stony and covered with triodia; good grass was still, however, to be found in the ravines leading out of the hills, and as our object was now to shape a course to the southward, we followed up one of the most promising valleys, in the hope that it might lead us through the range; we were, however, disappointed in finding that, after pushing some distance up very steep and rocky passes, they all terminated in cliffs of horizontal sandstone, running in parallel bands one above another to the height of 500 or 600 feet, and frequently extending without a break for ten or fifteen miles along the face of the range.  The horses being much fatigued by the climb from the valley of the river, we encamped at 3.10 p.m., within the hills, and without water.  Camp 12.

Fine grassy plain.  Fortescue river.

6th June.

A light drizzling rain came on early in the morning, but not enough to supply the horses, who rambled so far during the night in search of it that it was noon before they were all collected.  Quitting the range, which had been named after one of the most liberal promoters of the expedition, Hamersley Range, we took a north-east course, crossing over twelve or fourteen miles of beautiful open grassy plain, in many parts the kangaroo-grass reaching above the horses’ backs; the soil being of the richest clay-loam, occasionally containing beds of singular fragments of opaline rocks, resembling ancient lava.  By 5.30 p.m. we reached the river again, several miles above the deep glen that had checked our course on the 5th.  The valley having again opened out, gave us easy access to its banks, which were here a rich black peat soil, containing numerous springs.  Here was first observed a very handsome fan-palm, growing in topes, some of them attaining to the height of forty feet and twenty inches diameter, the leaves measuring eight to ten feet in length.  The river had again opened into deep reaches of water, and contained abundance of fish resembling cobblers, weighing four and five pounds each.  The whole character of the country was evidently changing for the better; and as I have no doubt that at no distant period it will become a rich and thriving settlement, I named the river the Fortescue, after the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, under whose auspices the expedition took its origin, and the large expanse of fertile plain that lies between the river and the Hamersley Range, Chichester Downs.