On my reconnaissance I crossed the Gilbert Ranges, which were named after my companion Mr. Gilbert, and came on waters which fall to the eastward, and join the Dawson lower down.  From the summit of an open part of the range, I saw other ranges to the northward, but covered with Bricklow scrub, as was also the greater part of Gibert’s Range.  To the east, however, the view was more cheering; for the hills are more open, and the vegetation composed of the silver-leaved and narrow-leaved Ironbark trees and an open Vitex scrub.  Several rocky gullies were passed, that were full of palm trees.  The valley of Palm-tree Creek extends about nineteen miles from west to east The ranges which bound it to the south, I called “Lynd’s Range,” after my friend R. Lynd, Esq.  Gilbert’s Range bounds it to the northward:  Middle Range separates the creek from the Dawson up to their junction.  Several large swamps are within the valley; one of which, the small lake which first broke upon my view, received the name of “Roper’s Lake,” after one of my companions.

Nov. 17.—­We went about nine miles up the valley, on a south branch of Palm-tree Creek, which derives its waters from Lynd’s Range.  The fine water-hole which I selected for our camp, was not only shaded by stately Coryphas and flooded gums, but the drooping Callistemon, the creek Melaleuca, and the Casuarina, gave to it the character of the rivers and creeks of the Moreton Bay district.  It changed, however, into a shallow waterless channel, communicating with one of the large swamps which generally extend along the base of the hills.  I rode up Lynd’s Range, passing plains similar to those I have before mentioned, composed of black soil intermingled with fossil wood and decomposed sandstone, and densely covered with Burr, (a composite plant) and Verbena, and scattered tufts either of Bricklow, or of Coxen’s Acacia, or of the bright green Fusanus, or of the darker verdure of Bauhinia, with here and there a solitary tree of a rich dark-green hue, from forty to fifty feet in height.  From the summit I had a fine view down the valley of the Dawson, which was bounded on both sides by ranges.  A high distant mountain was seen about N.N.E. from Lynd’s Range, at the left side of the Dawson.

The water-holes abounded with jew-fish and eels; of the latter we obtained a good supply, and dried two of them, which kept very well.  Two species of Limnaea, the one of narrow lengthened form, the other shorter and broader; a species of Paludina, and Cyclas and Unios, were frequent.  The jew-fish has the same distoma in its swimming bladder, which I observed in specimens caught in the Severn River to the southward of Moreton Bay:  on examining the intestines of this fish, they were full of the shells of Limnaea and Cyclas.  Large specimens of helix were frequent on the Vervain Plains, but they were only dead shells.  The fat-hen (Atriplex) and the sow-thistle (Sonchus) grew abundantly on the reedy flats at the upper end