At two miles farther on we came upon a little rivulet flowing to the westward through a good grassy valley, and it was joined about the place where we came upon it by one coming from the south.  The stream washed the base of a lofty mountain which I ascended while the people were passing our carts, cattle, and equipment across the rivulet which I named after my trusty follower Burnett.* The mountain consisted of granite and was so smooth that I could ride to its summit.  The weather was boisterous and the country which that height presented to my view seemed quite inaccessible, at least in the direction of the colony where: 

Hills upon hills and alps on alps arose.

(Footnote.  See figure with the fowling-piece in Plate 17 Volume 1.)

IMPEDIMENTS IN THE ROUTE.

The only valley of any extent which could be seen was that watered by the rivulet below, and this extended, as I have stated, to the westward, a direction in which we could not follow it with any prospect of either getting nearer home or reaching a cattle station.  Our provisions were exhausted, while the rocky fastnesses of a mountain region still threatened to shut us out from the Murrumbidgee, a river on whose banks we hoped to meet with civilised people once more and which, according to the map, was almost within our reach.  Again and again I examined the mountains with my glass, and only discovered that they were numerous and all ranging towards the north-west, a direction right across our way to the Murrumbidgee.  I could indeed trace among the hills in the north the grand valley through which the river flowed, but the intervening ranges seemed to deny any access to it from this side.  I was determined however to find some valley likely to lead us into that of the Murrumbidgee, and although it could only be looked for beyond that mountain range, our route had been so good and so direct thus far, from the very shores of the southern ocean, that I could not despair of crossing the comparatively small space occupied by these mountains; and I descended the hill firmly resolved to continue our course in the same direction as we best could.  I found on reaching the foot that, to the delight of the men, more cattle marks had been discovered in the valley, and in one place Piper pointed out a spot where a bullock had been eaten by the natives.  Following the little stream upwards I at length placed our camp in a grassy valley near its head and then, on riding forward, I found that no obstruction existed to our progress with the carts on the following day for at least several miles.

October 23.

The hills we ascended offered much less impediment than I had reason to apprehend when I surveyed them at a distance, but they became at length so steep-sided and sharp-pointed that to proceed further, even by keeping the crests of a range, seemed a very doubtful undertaking:  to cross such ranges was still more difficult while the principal chain, which led to the south-east, appeared equally impracticable even had its direction been more favourable.