On our return, we ran down an emu, the stomach of which was full of the fruit of the little Severn tree.  The meat of the whole body was so exceedingly bitter, that I could scarcely eat it.  Brown and John had returned with a good supply of beans, and of the large eatable roots of a Convolvolus growing on the plains.  The former allowed us again a pot of coffee at luncheon for the next three weeks.  This coffee had at first a relaxing effect, but we soon became accustomed to it, and enjoyed it even to the grounds themselves.

Sept. 26.—­We removed our camp to the water-holes I had found the day before.  We crossed the river at the head of the salt water, where the shallow stream of fresh water was about fifteen yards broad.  Sandstone ridges were all round our last camp, and on the opposite side of the river, where it was joined by a deep Pandanus creek.  John Murphy told me that he shot a fish at the crossing place, which had the first ray of the dorsal fin very much prolonged, like one of the fresh-water fishes of Darling Downs; they had been in such a hurry to roast it, that I had no chance of examining it.

The day was exceedingly hot, particularly from 7 to 11 o’clock, when the strong sea breeze set in from the north-east.

Sept. 27.—­I went with Brown to reconnoitre the country to the north-west.  About a mile from the camp, we crossed a fine creek with a chain of ponds and a tiny stream densely fringed with Pandanus.  To the north-west of it, we rode through a succession of scrubby and open stringy-bark forest of tea-tree flats and thickets, and over long tracts of stringy-bark saplings which had been recently burned.  The Melaleuca gum was very frequent in the stringy-bark forest:  the Cypress-pine formed either small thickets or occurred scattered.  Sterculia, which at the time was particularly valuable to us, was rare.

Red ironstone cropped out every where, and formed large shallow basins, surrounded by tea-tree thickets; like those swamps I have mentioned on several occasions.  About eight miles from the camp, we crossed a good sized waterless creek, with drooping tea-trees, and groves of Pandanus; and about three miles farther, came to a large creek with some very long water-holes, which were all stocked with small fish.  On our return, it became so dark that we missed our tracks; and, by keeping too much to the eastward, we came to a very wild rocky country, in which the large Pandanus creek, as well as that on which we were encamped, changed their character so much that we crossed without recognising them.  We encamped out, and the next morning, the 28th, we changed our course to the southward, which brought us to a little hill we had passed two days before, and which Brown immediately recognised:  thus affording another instance of the quickness of his eye, and of his wonderful memory for localities.  We returned on our former bullock tracks to the camp; and having taken some breakfast, and loaded our bullocks, we immediately started for the water-holes, which were situated about eleven miles to the north-west, in lat. 15 degrees 47 minutes 23 seconds.