We left the camp on the 25th, accompanied by Hopkinson and the tinker; and, almost immediately after, entered an acacia scrub of the most sterile description, and one, through which it would have been impossible to have found a passage for the boat carriage.  The soil was almost a pure sand, and the lower branches of the trees were decayed so generally as to give the whole an indescribable appearance of desolation.  About mid-day, we crossed a light sandy plain, on which there were some dirty puddles of water.  They were so shallow as to leave the backs of the frogs in them exposed, and they had, in consequence, been destroyed by solar heat, and were in a state of putrefaction.  Our horses refused to drink, but it was evident that some natives must have partaken of this sickening beverage only a few hours before our arrival.  Indeed, it was clear that a wandering family must have slept near this spot, as we observed a fresh made gunneah (or native hut), and their foot-prints were so fresh along the line we were pursuing, that we momentarily expected to have overtaken them.  It was late in the evening when we got out of this brush into better and more open ground, where, in ordinary seasons we should, no doubt, have found abundance of water.  But we now searched in vain for it, and were contented to be enabled to give our wearied animals better food than they had tasted for many days, the forest grass, though in tufts, being abundant.

We brought up for the night at the edge of a scrub, having travelled from thirty-two to thirty-five miles, judging the distance from the mountains still to be about twelve.

Bearings from Oxley’s table land.

In the morning we started at an early hour, and immediately entered the brush, beneath which we had slept; pursuing a westerly course through it.  After a short ride, we found ourselves upon a plain, that was crowded with flocks of cockatoos.  Here we got a supply of water, such as it was—­so mixed with slime as to hang in strings between the fingers; and, after a hasty breakfast, we proceeded on our journey, mostly through a barren sandy scrub that was a perfect burrow from the number of wombats in it, to within a mile of the hill group, where the country appeared like one continuous meadow to the very base of them.  I never saw anything like the luxuriance of the grass on this tract of country, waving as it did higher than our horses’ middles as we rode through it.  We ascended the S.W. face of the mountain to an elevation of at least 800 feet above the level of the plain, and had some difficulty in scaling the masses of rock that opposed themselves to our progress.  But on gaining the summit, we were amply repaid for our trouble.  The view extended far and wide, but we were again disappointed in the main object that had induced us to undertake the journey.  I took the following bearings by compass.  Oxley’s Table Land bore N. 40 E. distant forty-five miles; small and distant hill due E.; conical peak seen from Oxley’s Table Land S. 60 E., very distant; long ridge of high land, S.E., distant thirty-five miles; high land, S. 30 E., distant thirty miles; long range, S. 25 W.