The Whole Country Up The Creek Had Been Lately Burned, Which Induced Me To Follow It Towards Its Head, In Hope Of Finding The Place Where The Natives Had Procured Water.

The bed was filled with basaltic boulders, as were also its dry holes, from one of which the Grallina australis rose, and for the first time deceived our expectations.

In a wider part of the valley, I observed wells of the natives dug in the creek, which we enlarged in the hope of their yielding a sufficient supply of water; but in this we were mistaken, as barely enough was obtained to quench our own thirst. Charley, however, in a search up the creek, and after a long ramble, found a small pond and a spring in a narrow mountain gorge, to which he had been guided by a beaten track of Wallurus. Our horses and bullocks, which were crowding impatiently round the little hole we had dug, were immediately harnessed, and we proceeded about three miles in a north direction to the head of a rocky valley, where our cattle were enabled at least to drink, but all the grass had been consumed by a late bush fire.

The Acacia of Expedition Range was plentiful in the large flat and at the wells of the natives, and formed a fine tree: its seeds, however, were shed, and had been roasted by the late bush fire. Mr. Phillips (who was always desirous of discovering substitutes for coffee, and to whom we owed the use of the river-bean of the Mackenzie) collected these seeds, and pounded and boiled them, and gave me the fluid to taste, which I found so peculiarly bitter that I cautioned him against drinking it; his natural desire, however, for warm beverage, which had been increased by a whole day's travelling, induced him to swallow about a pint of it, which made him very sick, and produced violent vomiting and purging during the whole afternoon and night. The little I had tasted acted on me as a lenient purgative, but Mr. Calvert, who had taken rather more than I did, felt very sick. The gum of this Acacia was slightly acid, and very harmless.

Oct. 30. - We travelled about four miles to the N.W. and N.N.W. along the summit of rocky ranges, when a large valley bounded by high ranges to the north and north-west, burst upon us. We descended into it by a steep and rocky basaltic slope, and followed a creek which held a very tortuous course to the south-west; we had travelled along it about seven miles, when Charley was attracted by a green belt of trees, and by the late burnings of the natives, and discovered a running rivulet, coming from the N.N.W. It was fringed with Pandanus, Acacia (Inga monilifornis) and with an arborescent Vitex, with ternate leaves. The flats were well grassed, and lightly timbered with box and white-gum. On the flat summit of the sandstone ranges, we observed the Melaleuca gum, the rusty gum, the mountain Acacia, and Persoonia falcata, (R. Br.) The basaltic rock was apparently confined to the upper part of the valley, where it had broken through the sandstone, which composed all the ranges round our camp, the latitude of which I observed to be 14 degrees 23 minutes 55 seconds.

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