June 2.—­When we left our camp this morning, Mr. Gilbert and Charley returned from their ride; they had come on our tracks last night, but, surrounded as they were by rocky hills and gullies, had been compelled to encamp.  We travelled about seven miles and a half, and crossed three good sized creeks, joining the Lynd from the north east.  The river divided several times into anabranches, flowing round, and insulating rocky hills and ridges.  It was much better supplied with water, and contained several large reedy lagoons.  An elegant Acacia, about thirty or thirty-five feet high, grew on its small flats:  it had large drooping glaucous bipinnate leaves, long broad pods, and oval seeds, half black, and half bright red.

June 3.—­We continued our journey down the river, about seven or eight miles.  The first three miles were very tolerable, over limited box-flats near the river.  As we approached the ranges again, the supply of water increased; and we passed one large poel, in particular, with many ducks and spoonbills on it.  But the ranges approached the banks of the river on both sides, and formed either precipitous walls, or flats so exceedingly rocky, that it was out of the question to follow it.  We, therefore, ascended the hills and mountains, and with our foot-sore cattle passed over beds of sharp shingles of porphyry.  We crept like snails over these rocky hills, and through their gullies filled with boulders and shingles, until I found it necessary to halt, and allow my poor beasts to recover.  During the afternoon, I examined the country in advance, and found that the mountains extended five miles farther, and were as rocky as those we had already passed.  But, after that, they receded from the river, and the country became comparatively level.  To this place I brought forward my party on the 4th June, and again descended into the valley of the river, and encamped near a fine pool of water in its sandy bed, in latitude 17 degrees 34 minutes 17 seconds.  Here, last night, I met a family of natives who had just commenced their supper; but, seeing us, they ran away and left their things, without even making an attempt to frighten us.  Upon examining their camp, I found their koolimans, (vessels to keep water) full of bee bread, of which I partook, leaving for payment some spare nose rings of our bullocks.  In their dillies I found the fleshy roots of a bean, which grows in a sandy soil, and has solitary yellow blossoms; the tuber of a vine, which has palmate leaves; a bitter potato, probably belonging to a water-plant; a fine specimen of rock-crystal; and a large cymbium (a sea shell), besides other trifles common to almost all the natives we had seen.  Their koolimans were very large, almost like small boats, and were made of the inner layer of the bark of the stringy-bark tree.  There was no animal food in the camp.

The whole extent of the mountainous country passed in our two last stages, was of porphyry, with crystals of quartz and felspar in a grey paste; on both sides of it, the rock was granite and pegmatite; and, at the north-west side of the gorge, I observed talc-schist in the bed of the river.