ASCEND MORIATTU.

April 19.

Mr. Stapylton conducted the party forward while I went to the summit of Moriattu with the theodolite.  Thence I saw Mount Granard, Yerrarar, and Mount Torrens, also the various points which I had intersected from Wallangome.  A level plain appeared to extend southward in the midst of the groups of ridges composing Macquarie and Peel’s ranges.  Coccaparra, a range very abrupt on the eastern side, appeared to be Macquarie’s range of Oxley, and an elevated extremity of it, near the river, I took to be Mount Porteous, and of which the local name is Willin.* To the northward the most remarkable feature was a line of plains similar to those beside the main channel of the river, and they appeared to border a branch from it, which extended in a western direction under the base of a small hill named Murrangong, and far beyond it.  The hill on which I stood was the most perfectly isolated that I had ever seen, low level ground surrounding it on every side.  It consisted of a variety of the same quartz rock as Wallangome, but contained pebbles of laminated compact felspar.  This hill was abrupt and rocky on the west and north-west sides, the best ascent being from the south-east.

(Footnote.  Willi, an opossum)

We overtook the party after it had crossed some extensive plains, where we observed a species of solanum, the berries of which our native guides gathered and ate.* Overseer Burnett made another search this day on Coccaparra range for the wild bullocks; the party fell in with a herd but it kept at a great distance and got off into scrubs.  Their bedding places and paths were numerous, and it thus appeared that the number of these animals was considerable.  We gathered on Coccaparra and Mount Porteous several bulbous plants of a species quite new to me, the root being very large.  There also we found a remarkable acacia, having long upright needle-like leaves among which a few small tufts of yellow flowers were sparingly scattered.** We encamped on a pond of the river named Burrabadimba, after travelling fifteen miles.

(Footnote.  S. esuriale, Lindley manuscripts; caule humili suffruticoso, aculcis subulatis tenuibus in apice ramulorum et costa, foliis lineari-oblongis obtusis subrepandis utrinque cinereis stellato-pilosis, pedunculis subtrifloris, calycibus campanulatis pentagonis 5-dentatis stellato-pilosis corollis tomentosis multo brevioribus.)

(**Footnote.  This proved to be the rare A. quadrilateralis of De Candolle.)

LEAVE THE LACHLAN TO TRAVEL WESTWARD.

April 20.