Oct. 3.—­Rise at five o’clock, and start at half-past nine; small plains alternate with a flat forest country, slightly timbered; melon-holes; marly concretions, a stiff clayey soil, beautifully grassed:  the prevailing timber trees are Bastard box, the Moreton Bay ash, and the Flooded Gum.  After travelling seven miles, in a north-west direction, we came on a dense Myal scrub, skirted by a chain of shallow water-holes.  The scrub trending towards, and disappearing in, the S. W.:  the Loranthus and the Myal in immense bushes; Casuarina frequent.  In the forest, Ranunculus inundatus; Eryngium with terete simple leaves, of which the horses are fond; Prasophyllum elatum, sweetly scented.  A new composite with white blossoms, the rays narrow and numerous.  Sky clear; cumuli to the S. W.; wind from the westward.  Ridges visible to the N.N.E. and N.E.  At the outskirts of the scrub, the short-tailed sleeping lizard with knobby scales was frequent:  one of them contained six eggs.  We camped outside of the scrub, surrounded by small tufts of the Bricklow Acacia.  Droves of kangaroos entered the scrub; their foot-paths crossed the forest in every direction.

The thermometer, before and at sunrise, 32 degrees; so cold that I could not work with my knife, away from the fire.  At sunset, a thick gathering of clouds to the westward.

Oct. 4.—­Cloudy sky; thermometer 50 degrees at sunrise; little dew; 64 degrees at eight o’clock.

We travelled about eleven miles in a S. W. and S. S. W. direction, skirting the scrub.  During the journey, two thunder-storms passed over; one to the southward beyond the Condamine, the other to the north and north-east over the mountains.  The scrub is a dense mass of vegetation, with a well defined outline—­a dark body of foliage, without grass, with many broken branches and trees; no traces of water, or of a rush of waters.  More to the southward, the outline of the scrub becomes less defined, and small patches are seen here and there in the forest.  The forest is open and well timbered; but the trees are rather small.  A chain of lagoons from E. by N.—­W. by S.; large flooded gum-trees (but no casuarinas) at the low banks of the lagoons.  The presence of many fresh-water muscles (Unio) shows that the water is constant, at least in ordinary seasons.

The scrub opens more and more; a beautiful country with Bricklow groves, and a white Vitex in full blossom.  The flats most richly adorned by flowers of a great variety of colours:  the yellow Senecios, scarlet Vetches, the large Xeranthemums, several species of Gnaphalium, white Anthemis-like compositae:  the soil is a stiff clay with concretions:  melon-holes with rushes; the lagoons with reeds.

At night, a thunder-storm from south-west.  Our dogs caught a female kangaroo with a young one in its pouch, and a kangaroo rat.