was by no means encouraging; and I have frequently travelled more than twenty-five miles in a straight line without obtaining my object, In coming on creeks, it required some experience in the country, to know whether to travel up or down the bed:  some being well provided with water immediately at the foot of the range, and others being entirely dry at their upper part, but forming large puddled holes, lower down, in a flat country.  From daily experience, we acquired a sort of instinctive feeling as to the course we should adopt, and were seldom wrong in our decisions.

The ridges, near the water-holes on which we were encamped, are composed of an igneous rock containing much iron, with which the water was impregnated to such a degree, that our tea turned quite black and inky.  The natives were very numerous in these parts, and their tracks were everywhere visible.  They had even followed the tracks of Mr. Gilbert’s and Brown’s horses of the preceding day.

The night was bright; the day cloudy, and the wind easterly.  I went with Charley, in the afternoon of the 17th, to examine the extent of the scrubby country, of which Mr. Gilbert had given us so poor an account.  The channel of the river became narrow and deep, with steep banks, as it enters the scrub, and there the flooded gums entirely disappeared.  The scrub is about eight miles long, and from two to three miles broad, and is tolerably open.  The Bricklow is here a real tree, but of stunted growth, with regularly fissured bark, like that of the Ironbark (Eucalyptus resinifera).  It has long broad falcate phyllodia, whilst another species of the same size has an irregular scaly bark, with small phyllodia, but of a greyer colour than those of the common Bricklow.  Both species grow promiscuously together.  Where the river left the scrub, it entered into a wild water-worn box flat, and cut up into several irregular channels, lined by a dense thicket of narrow-leaved Melaleucas of stunted growth and irregular shapes.  The Box-tree itself is here a different species, the bark has deeper fissures, and the young wood is very yellow.  I shall distinguish it by the name of “Water-box,” as it grows exclusively near creeks, or on the neighbouring flats.  I first observed it at the Mackenzie; its bark strips freely, but the stem is too short and irregular to be of any use.

In passing a low hill, at the foot of which the box-flat commenced, we came on a very distinct path of the natives, which led us to a deep water-hole, covered with luxuriant grass; containing but a small quantity of water.  Farther on we came to a second hole better supplied, and to a third; and at last Charley cried out, “Look there, Sir! what big water!” and a long broad sheet of water stretched in sweeps through a dense Bauhinia and Bricklow scrub, which covered its steep banks.  It is a singular character of this remarkable country, that extremes so often meet; the most miserable scrub, with the open plain and fine forest land; and the most paralysing dryness, with the finest supply of water.