attending a position of a
large creek or river, and were at the same time free from the
annoyance of the numberless ants, flies, and mosquitoes that are
invariably met with amongst timber or heavy scrub.

Tuesday, 25th December, 1860.--We left Gray's Creek at half-past
four A.M. and proceeded to cross the earthy rotten plains in the
direction of Eyre's Creek. At a distance of about nine miles we
reached some lines of trees and bushes which were visible from the
top of the sand ridge at Gray's Creek. We found them growing on the
banks of several small creeks which trend to the north and
north-north-west; at a mile and a half further we crossed a small
creek north-north-east, and joining the ones above mentioned. This
creek contained abundance of water in small detached holes from
fifty to a hundred links long, well shaded by steep banks and
overhanging bushes. The water had a suspiciously transparent colour
and a slight trace of brackishness, but the latter was scarcely
perceptible. Near where the creek joined the holes is a sandhill
and a dense mass of fine timber. The smoke of a fire indicated the
presence of blacks, who soon made their appearance and followed us
for some distance, beckoning us away to the north-east. We however
continued our course north-west by north, but at a distance of one
mile and a half found that the creek did not come round as we
expected, and that the fall of the water was in a direction nearly
opposite to our course, or about west to east. We struck off north
half west for a high sand ridge, from which we anticipated seeing
whether it were worth while for us to follow the course of the
creeks we had crossed. We were surprised to find all the
watercourses on the plains trending rather to the south of east,
and at a distance of three miles, after changing our course, and
when we approached the sandhills towards which we had been
steering, we were agreeably pulled up by a magnificent creek coming
from the north-north-west, and running in the direction of the fire
we had seen. We had now no choice but to change our course again,
for we could not have crossed even if we had desired to do so. On
following up the south bank of the creek we found it soon keeping a
more northerly course than it had where we first struck it. This
fact, together with its magnitude and general appearance, lessened
the probability of its being Eyre's Creek, as seemed at first very
likely from their relative positions a