sand hills, by which they were partly separated from one another.  Below us, on our course, there was a large plain of about eight miles in breadth; but immediately at the foot of the hill, which was very abrupt (being the terminating point of a sandy ridge of which it was the northern extremity), there was a polygonum flat.  We there saw a beautiful parrot, but could not procure it.  The plain we next rode across was evidently subject to floods in many parts; the soil was a mixture of sand and clay.  There was a good deal of grass here and there upon it, and box-trees stunted in their growth were scattered very sparingly round about; but the country was otherwise denuded of timber.  There were large bare patches on the plains, that had been full of water not long before, but too shallow to have lasted long, and were now dry.  We found several small pools, however, and halted at one, after a journey of 17 miles, near some gum-trees.

The morning of the 20th was exceedingly calm, with the wind from the west, but it had been previously from the opposite point.  The channel of the creek was broad, and we traced it to some distance on either hand, but it contained no water, excepting that at which we stopped; but at about two miles before we halted, Mr. Browne found a supply under some gum-trees, a little to the right of our course, where we halted on our return.

The Bauhinia here grew to the height of 16 to 20 feet, and was a very pretty tree; the ends of its branches were covered with seed-pods, both of this and the year before:  it was a flat vessel, containing four or six flat hard beans.  I regretted, at this early stage of our journey, that the horses were not up to much work, although we were very considerate with them, but the truth is, that they had for about two or three months before leaving the Depot, been living on pulpy vegetables, in which there was no strength, they nevertheless looked in good condition.  They had become exceedingly tractable, and never wandered far from our fires; Flood, however, watched them so narrowly that they could not have gone far.  Since the three days’ rain in July, the sky was but little clouded, but we now observed, that from whatever quarter the wind blew, a bank of clouds would rise in the opposite direction—­if from the east, in the west, and vice versa—­but these clouds invariably came against the wind, and must consequently have been moving in an upper current.

On the 20th we commenced our journey early, that is to say, at 6 a.m.; the sky was clear, the temperature mild, and the wind in the S.E. quarter.  We crossed plains of still greater extent than any we had hitherto seen; their soil was similar to that on the flats of the Darling, and vegetation seemed to suffer from their liability to inundation.  The only trees now to be seen were a few box-trees along their skirts, and on the line of the creeks, which last were a perfectly new feature in the country, and surprised me greatly.