A native low shrubby Mulberry was found in this scrub, the fruit of which was good to eat, but of very small size.

From the top of the hills I enjoyed a most beautiful view of the valley of the river, with its large lagoons covered with Nymphaeas and Damasoniums.  On one of the lagoons, Charley shot a Parra gallinacea, a bird which Mr. Gilbert had observed only at Port Essington.  A well beaten path of the natives showed that they were numerous in this part of the country:  we saw many of their camping places during the stage; and the fires of their camps were numerous; we saw a party of them, but they were too frightened to allow us to approach.  Our latitude was 18 degrees 44 minutes 48 seconds.  Our course was about N.N.W.

May 4.—­We ascended the basaltic ridges, and reaching the table land, found it perfectly level, openly timbered, well grassed, but occasionally stony, by which our poor foot-sore bullocks suffered severely.  About five miles north-west by west from our camp, we discovered an extensive valley with large lagoons and lakes, and a most luxuriant vegetation, bounded by blue distant ranges, and forming the most picturesque landscape we had yet met with.  A chain of lagoons connected by a reedy brook followed the outlines of the table land, along the foot of its steep slopes.  We descended by a tolerably gentle slope into the valley, and encamped near the reedy brook, which must be the same as that on which, lower down, our last camp was formed.  Water, grass, hills, mountains, plains, forest land; all the elements of a fine pasturing country, were here united.

During one of the last stages, we discovered a leguminous tree, with the dark fissured bark of the Ironbark, but with large bipinnate leaves, the leaflets oblong, an inch in length; the pods broad and thin, and two or three inches long:  this tree is common all over the northern part of the continent, and was found growing abundantly around Victoria, the principal settlement of Port Essington.

Mr. Roper and Brown, upon an excursion after ducks, which were very numerous on the lagoons, met with Blackfellows, who were willing to accost Brown, but could not bear the sudden sight of a white face.  In trying to cross the valley, my course was intercepted every way by deep reedy and sedgy lagoons, which rendered my progress impossible.  I saw, however, that this valley was also floored with a sheet of lava hollowed out into numerous deep basins, in which the water collected and formed the lagoons.

May 5.—­I went with Charley to reconnoitre the upper part of the reedy brook, with a view to find a passage over the table land to the westward; at the same time I sent Mr. Roper and Brown to trace the river through the lagoons, and to examine whether there was any connection between them.  I followed the base of the basaltic table land, along which the brook came down, and, after a two miles’ ride on its banks, through oak trees, low fern trees, and