a passage for the boat carriage. The soil was
almost a pure sand, and the lower branches of the trees were decayed so
generally as to give the whole an indescribable appearance of
desolation. About mid-day, we crossed a light sandy plain, on which
there were some dirty puddles of water. They were so shallow as to
leave the backs of the frogs in them exposed, and they had, in
consequence, been destroyed by solar heat, and were in a state of
putrefaction. Our horses refused to drink, but it was evident that some
natives must have partaken of this sickening beverage only a few hours
before our arrival. Indeed, it was clear that a wandering family must
have slept near this spot, as we observed a fresh made gunneah (or
native hut), and their foot-prints were so fresh along the line we were
pursuing, that we momentarily expected to have overtaken them. It was
late in the evening when we got out of this brush into better and more
open ground, where, in ordinary seasons we should, no doubt, have found
abundance of water. But we now searched in vain for it, and were
contented to be enabled to give our wearied animals better food than
they had tasted for many days, the forest grass, though in tufts, being
abundant.

We brought up for the night at the edge of a scrub, having travelled
from thirty-two to thirty-five miles, judging the distance from the
mountains still to be about twelve.

BEARINGS FROM OXLEY'S TABLE LAND.

In the morning we started at an early hour, and immediately entered the
brush, beneath which we had slept; pursuing a westerly course through
it. After a short ride, we found ourselves upon a plain, that was
crowded with flocks of cockatoos. Here we got a supply of water, such
as it was--so mixed with slime as to hang in strings between the
fingers; and, after a hasty breakfast, we proceeded on our journey,
mostly through a barren sandy scrub that was a perfect burrow from the
number of wombats in it, to within a mile of the hill group, where the
country appeared like one continuous meadow to the very base of them. I
never saw anything like the luxuriance of the grass on this tract of
country, waving as it did higher than our horses' middles as we rode
through it. We ascended the S.W. face of the mountain to an elevation
of at least 800 feet above the level of the plain, and had some
difficulty in scaling the masses of rock that opposed themselves to our
progress. But on gaining the summit, we were amply repai