One of our bullocks had torn one of the flour-bags, and about fifteen pounds of flour were scattered over the ground.  We all set to work, to scrape as much of it up as we could, using the dry gum leaves as spoons to collect it; and, when it got too dirty to mix again with our flour, rather than leave so much behind, we collected about six pounds of it well mixed with dried leaves and dust, and of this we made a porridge,—­a mess which, with the addition of some gelatine, every one of us enjoyed highly.

No new insects, few new birds, and but few plants, attracted our attention.  Mr. Gilbert’s parrot, which he first met with on the downs, was very frequent; the glucking-bird and the barking-owl were heard throughout the moonlight nights.  Several native dogs were killed, and their howling was frequently heard.  Only one kangaroo had been shot since we left the Dawson, although their tracks were met with every where.  Charley had taken several opossums; the presence of these animals generally indicates a good country.  Quails were abundant, but not worth our powder; flocks of spur-winged plovers were living at the lakes and swamps, and a shy hornbill (Scythrops) was seen and heard several times.  The nests of the white ant were rarely seen; but the soldier ant, and the whole host of the others, were every where.  The funnel ant digs a perpendicular hole in the ground, and surrounds the opening with an elevated wall, sloping outwards like a funnel; the presence of this insect generally indicates a rotten soil, into which horses and cattle sink beyond their fetlocks.  This soil is, however, by no means a pure sand, but is well mixed with particles of clay, which allow the ant to construct its fabric.  In rainy weather this soil forms the best travelling ground, and is by no means so rotten as when dry.

Large hornets of a bright yellow colour, with some black marks, made their paper nests on the stems of trees, or suspended them from the dry branches; most of us were several times severely stung by them.  When found near our encampment we generally destroyed them, by quickly raising a large fire with dry grass.

A species of Gristes was abundant in the water-holes, but it was of small size:  the eels have disappeared.

Nov. 25.—­We travelled about eight miles, north by west, ascending a spur, from which the waters flowed, both to the south-west and to the eastward, but both collecting in Robinson’s Creek.  Every time we turned to the westward we came on tremendous gullies, with almost perpendicular walls, whereas the easterly waters formed shallow valleys of a gently sloping character.  The range was openly timbered with white-gum, spotted-gum, Ironbark, rusty-gum, and the cypress-pine near the gullies; and with a little dioecious tree belonging to the Euphorbiaceae, which I first met with at the Severn River, and which was known amongst us under the name of the “Severn Tree:”  it had a yellow or red three-capsular