A CREEK TERMINATING IN A SWAMP.

At eight miles we came to a chain of deep ponds which seemed a tributary to some greater water, as indicated by the yarra trees and flats before us, apparently covered with verdure.  On advancing into these flats however we found them soft and swampy, being so very wet and so covered with dead trees that we were obliged to retrace our steps and turn eastward, thus crossing to a higher bank altogether east of the chain of ponds; and along this we proceeded without seeing any further continuance of the deep serpentine channel, full of water, which appeared to terminate there.  That woody swamp seemed very extensive and was the only instance met with in the course of our travels of the termination of a stream in a swamp, although I understood subsequently that this was the fate of various minor brooks descending towards that part of the interior plains.  We found there a curious black-headed grass which proved to be of the carex genus.  At 11 1/2 miles we arrived at a running stream, its course being northward; and at 15 1/2 miles we reached a very fine little rivulet flowing between grassy banks twenty-five feet high, the soil consisting of a red earth similar to that on the interior plains and the banks of the Murray.

MOUNT TRAFALGAR.  RUGGED COUNTRY STILL BEFORE US.

October 21.

At five miles we were abreast of a pointed hill which I ascended and named Mount Trafalgar in honour of that memorable day.  From it I obtained a view of the country before us, and I perceived in the direction of our intended route some high cone-shaped hills.  A ridge extended from them to the westward, but its height seemed gradually to diminish in that direction, although it presented two very abrupt and remarkable hills whose steepest side being towards the north overlooked as I supposed the spacious basin of the Murrumbidgee.  One solitary mount appeared much farther to the westward and was also steep-sided towards the north.  On descending I shaped my course towards the hollow where the ridge could be most easily crossed.  At 8 3/4 miles we met with some good ponds of water and beyond them the winding channel of a smaller watercourse falling southward from the range already mentioned.  After crossing and recrossing this channel and its various branches we at length gained the crest of the range, and I directed the party to halt while I hastened to a conical summit on the left, apparently the highest and most pointed of those previously observed.  It consisted of syenite and from it I obtained a very extensive view to the northward, but yet could not see any favourable opening in the direction in which I wished to reach the Murrumbidgee:  on the contrary as we reduced our distance from home the obstacles to our reaching it seemed to increase.

PROVISIONS NEARLY EXHAUSTED.