On the afternoon of Thursday, 21st May, we began our retreat, and finally left Fort McKellar, where my hopes had been as high as my defeat was signal.  On arriving at the pass we camped close to the beautiful fresh-water springs, where both Mr. Tietkens and Gibson, had planted a patch of splendid soil, Gibson having done the same at Fort McKellar with all kinds of seeds; but the only thing that came up well here was maize.  That looked splendid, and had grown nearly three feet high.  The weather was now delightful, and although in full retreat, had there been no gloom upon our feelings, had we had any good food to eat, with such fine horses as Banks, and Diaway, W.A., Trew, Blackie, etc. to ride, and a line of well-watered country before us for hundreds of miles, we might have considered our return a pleasure trip; but gloom covered our retreat, and we travelled along almost in silence.  The pass was a place I greatly liked, and it was free from ants.  There was a long line of fine eucalyptus timber and an extensive piece of ground covered with rushes, which made it look very pretty; altogether it was a most desirable spot for an explorer’s camp, and an excellent place for the horses, as they soon got fat here.  It is impossible that I should ever forget Sladen Water or the Pass of the Abencerrages:  “Methinks I am as well in this valley as I have been anywhere else in all our journey; the place methinks suits with my spirit.  I love to be in such places, where there is no rattling with coaches, nor rumbling with wheels.  Methinks here one may, without much molestation, be thinking what he is, and whence he came; what he has done, and to what the king has called him” (Bunyan).  On the Queen’s birthday we bade it a last farewell, and departed for the east and civilisation, once more.  We now had the route that Mr. Tietkens and I had explored in March—­that is to say, passing and getting water at all the following places:—­Gill’s Pinnacle, the Ruined Rampart, Louisa’s Creek, and the Chirnside.  The country, as I have said before, was excellent and good for travelling over.  The crescent-shaped and wall-like range running from the Weld Pass to Gill’s Pinnacle, and beyond it, I named the Schwerin Mural Crescent; and a pass through it I named Vladimar Pass, in honour of Prince Vladimar, son of the Emperor of Russia, married to the Princess of Schwerin.  When we reached the place where we first surprised the natives hunting, in March, we made a more northerly detour, as our former line had been through and over very rough hills, and in so doing we found on the 1st of June another splendid watering-place, where several creeks joined and ran down through a rocky defile, or glen, to the north.  There was plenty of both rock and sand water here, and it was a very pretty and excellent little place.  I called it Winter’s* Glen, and the main creek of the three in which it lies, Irving Creek.  This water may easily be found by a future traveller, from