amongst the box and flooded-gum, on the rising ground between the two creeks.  Farther on, the country opened, the scrub receded; Ironbark ridges here and there, with spotted gum, with dog-wood (Jacksonia) on a sandy soil, covered with flint pebbles, diversified the sameness.  The grass was beautiful, but the tufts distant; the Ironbark forest was sometimes interspersed with clusters of Acacias; sometimes the Ironbark trees were small and formed thickets.  Towards the end of the stage, the country became again entirely flat, without any indication of drainage, and we were in manifest danger of being without water.  At last, a solitary lagoon was discovered, about 30 yards in diameter, of little depth, but with one large flooded gum-tree, marked, by a piece of bark stripped off, as the former resting-place of a native; the forest oak is abundant.  Here I first met with Hakea lorea, R. Br., with long terete drooping leaves, every leaf one and a-half to two feet long—­a small tree 18—­24 minutes high—­and with Grevillea mimosoides, R. Br., also a small tree, with very long riband-like leaves of a silvery grey.  We did not see any kangaroos, but got a kangaroo rat and a bandicoot.

Oct. 11.—­Travelling north-west we came to a Cypress-pine thicket, which formed the outside of a Bricklow scrub.  This scrub was, at first, unusually open, and I thought that it would be of little extent; I was, however, very much mistaken:  the Bricklow Acacia, Casuarinas and a stunted tea-tree, formed so impervious a thicket, that the bullocks, in forcing their way through it, tore the flour-bags, upset their loads, broke their straps, and severely tried the patience of my companions, who were almost continually occupied with reloading one or other of the restless brutes.  Having travelled five miles into it, and finding no prospect of its termination, I resolved upon returning to our last camp, which, however, I was not enabled to effect, without experiencing great difficulty, delay, and loss; and it was not until the expiration of two days, that we retraced our steps, and reached the lagoon which we had left on the 11th.  We had lost about 143 pounds of flour; Mr. Gilbert lost his tent, and injured the stock of his gun.  The same night, rain set in, which lasted the whole of the next day:  it came in heavy showers, with thunder-storms, from the north and north-west, and rendered the ground extremely boggy, and made us apprehensive of being inundated, for the lagoon was rapidly rising:  our tent was a perfect puddle, and the horses and cattle were scarcely able to walk.

Within the scrub there was a slight elevation, in which sandstone cropped out:  it was covered with cypress-pine, and an Acacia, different from the Bricklow.  The Bottle-tree (Sterculia, remarkable for an enlargement of the stem, about three feet above the ground,) was observed within the scrub:  the white Vitex (?) and Geigera, Schott., a small tree, with aromatic linear-lanceolate leaves, grew at its outside, and in small groves scattered through the open forest.  Fusanus, a small tree with pinnate leaves, and Buttneria, a small shrub, were also found in these groves.