June 19.—­We travelled about eight miles N. 50 degrees W. lat. 16 degrees 22 minutes 16 seconds and again encamped at a very deep lagoon, covered near its edges with Villarsias, but without Nymphaeas.  The soil of the flat round the lagoon, was very stiff and suitable for making bricks.  The country along the Mitchell was an immense uninterrupted flat with a very clayey soil, on which the following plants were frequent:  viz.  Grevillea, Cerotaphylla, and Mimosoides, a Melaleuca with broad lanceolate leaves, Spathodea and a Balfouria, R. Br.

Whilst walking down by the lagoon, I found a great quantity of ripe Grewia seeds, and, on eating many of them, it struck me, that their slightly acidulous taste, if imparted to water, would make a very good drink; I therefore gathered as many as I could, and boiled them for about an hour; the beverage which they produced was at all events the best we had tasted on our expedition:  and my companions were busy the whole afternoon in gathering and boiling the seeds.

Charley and Brown, who had gone to the river, returned at a late hour, when they told us that they had seen the tracks of a large animal on the sands of the river, which they judged to be about the size of a big dog, trailing a long tail like a snake.  Charley said, that when Brown fired his gun, a deep noise like the bellowing of a bull was heard; which frightened both so much that they immediately decamped.  This was the first time that we became aware of the existence of the crocodile in the waters of the gulf.

June 20.—­We travelled about ten miles north-west, and avoided the gullies by keeping at a distance from the river.  Plains covered with high dry grass alternated with an open forest; in which we observed Spathodea, Bauhinia, a Balfouria, groves of Cochlospermum gossypium, and several other trees, which I had seen in the scrubs of Comet River; among which was the arborescent Cassia with long pods.  A Bauhinia, different from the two species I had previously seen, was covered with red blossoms, which, where the tree abounded, gave quite a purple hue to the country.  The stringy-bark, the bloodwood, the apple-gum, the box, and the flooded-gum, grew along the bergue of the river.

We passed some fine lagoons at the latter end of the stage.  The banks of the river were so steep, that the access to its water was difficult; its stream, deep and apparently slow, occupied about half the bed, which was perhaps one hundred and eighty, or two hundred yards broad.  The soil was very sandy, and three deep channels parallel to the river were overgrown with high stiff grass.  A pretty yellow Ipomoea formed dense festoons between the trees that fringed the waters.  The unripe seeds of Cochlospermum, when crushed, gave a fine yellow colour, shaded into an orange hue.

Large flocks of Peristera histrionica (the Harlequin pigeon) were lying on the patches of burnt grass on the plains, they feed on the brown seeds of a grass, which annoyed us very much by getting into our stockings, trowsers, and blankets.  The rose-breasted cockatoo, Mr. Gilbert’s Platycercus of Darling Downs, and the Betshiregah (Melopsittacus undulatus, Gould.) were very numerous, and it is probable that the plains round the gulf are their principal home, whence they migrate to the southward.  The white and black cockatoos were also very numerous.