March 7.—­I moved my camp through the mountain gorge, the passage of which was rather difficult, in consequence of large boulders of sandstone, and of thickets of narrow-leaved tea-trees growing in the bed of the river.  To the northward, it opens into fine gentle Ironbark slopes and ridges, which form the heads of the Isaacs.  They seem to be the favourite haunts of emus; for three broods of them were seen, of ten, thirteen, and even sixteen birds.  About four miles from the gorge, we came to the heads of another creek, which I called “Suttor Creek” after —­Suttor, Esq., who had made me a present of four bullocks when I started on this expedition; four or five miles farther down we found it well supplied with fine water-holes.  Here, however, patches of scrub again appeared.  The ridges were covered with iron-coloured quartz pebbles, which rendered our bullocks footsore.  The marjoram was abundant, particularly near the scrubs, and filled the air with a most exquisite odour.  A mountain range was seen to the right; and, where the ranges of the head of the Isaacs abruptly terminated, detached hills and ridges formed the south-western and southern barrier of the waters of Suttor Creek.

March 8.—­As we followed the creek about nine miles farther down, it became broader, and the Casuarinas were more frequent.  Its bed was sandy, occasionally filled with reeds, and contained numerous water-holes, particularly where the sandstone rock formed more retentive basins.

During the last two days we had drizzling rain, which cleared up a little about noon and at night.  The weather was delightfully cool; the wind was very strong from the eastward.  I sent Mr. Roper forward to look for water, of which he found a sufficient supply.  He stated that the country to the westward opened into fine plains, of a rich black soil; but it was very dry.  The bluff terminations of the left range bore E. by S., and that on the right E.N.E.

March 9.—­We moved to the water-holes found yesterday by Mr. Roper.  On our way we crossed a large scrub creek, coming from the northward and joining Suttor Creek, which turned to the westward, and even W. by S. and W.S.W.

Mr. Gilbert and Charley made an excursion to the westward, in which direction Mr. Roper had seen a distant range, at the foot of which I expected to find a large watercourse.  Wind continued from the east and south-east; about the middle of last night we had some rain.

A slender snake, about five feet long, of a greyish brown on the back, and of a bright yellow on the belly, was seen nimbly climbing a tree.  The head was so much crushed in killing it that I could not examine its teeth.

Mr. Roper and John Murphy succeeded in shooting eight cockatoos, which gave us an excellent soup.  I found in their stomachs a fruit resembling grains of rice, which was slightly sweet, and would doubtless afford an excellent dish, if obtained in sufficient quantity and boiled.