June 24.—­We continued our journey about nine miles west by north to latitude 15 degrees 59 minutes 30 seconds, over a rather broken country alternating with Bauhinia plains and a well-grassed forest.  The banks of a large lagoon, on which several palm trees grew, were covered with heaps of mussel-shells.  Swarms of sheldrakes were perching in the trees, and, as we approached, they rose with a loud noise, flying up and down the lagoon, and circling in the air around us.  A chain of water-holes, fringed with Mangrove myrtle, changed, farther to the westward, into a creek, which had no connection with the river, but was probably one of the heads of the Nassau.  We crossed it, and encamped on a water-hole covered with Nymphaeas, about a mile from the river, whose brushy banks would have prevented us from approaching it, had we wished to do so.

Though the easterly winds still prevailed, a slight north-west breeze was very distinctly felt, from about 11 o’clock a.m.

June 25.—­We travelled about ten miles N.N.W. to latitude 15 degrees 51 minutes 26 seconds, but did not follow the river, which made large windings to the northward.  It was very broad where Brown saw it last, and, by his account, the brush was almost entirely composed of palm trees.  He saw a little boat with a fine Cymbium shell floating on the water.  Our road led us over a well grassed forest land, and several creeks, which, although rising near the river, appeared to have no communication with it.  Some plains of considerable size were between the river and our line of march; they were well grassed, but full of melon-holes, and rose slightly towards the river, forming a remarkable water-shed, perhaps, between the Nassau and the Mitchell.  As we approached the river, we entered into a flat covered with stunted box, and intersected by numerous irregular water-courses.  The box was succeeded by a Phyllanthus scrub, through which we pushed, and then came to a broad creek, filled with fine water, but not running, although high water-marks on the drooping tea-trees proved that it was occasionally flooded.  We did not understand, nor could we ascertain, in what relation this singular country and the creek stood to the river, of which nothing was to be seen from the right bank of the creek.

The scrub, and the high grass along the creek, were swarming with white flanked wallabies, three of which Brown and Charley succeeded in shooting; and these, with a common grey kangaroo caught by Spring, and five ducks shot by Brown, provided our larder with a fine supply of game.

When I first came on the Lynd, I supposed that it flowed either independently to the head of the gulf, or that it was the tributary of a river which collected the waters of the York Peninsula, and carried them in a south-west or south-south-west course to the head of the gulf of Carpentaria.  Such a course would have corresponded to that of the Burdekin at the eastern side, and the supposition was tolerably warranted