n thither at once, as we could give them but a limited quantity
of water. I rode forward also to the camp, and met the fresh horses about
half-way. I immediately ordered the repair of the wheels of another light
cart, determined to lose no time in exploring a passage towards the head
of Carpentaria. Thermometer, at sunrise, 48 deg.; at noon, 95; at 4 P. M.,
93 deg.; at 9, 63 deg.;--with wet bulb, 58 deg..

21ST APRIL.--The cart came in about 9 A. M. The morning was cloudy, for
the first time this month, and a slight shower fell. Had three or four
days' rain fallen at that time, it would have enabled me to have explored
by much less circuitous routes, than along the bank of this great river,
the country to the north-west. In this case, the tour from which I had
just returned might have been continued, as I wished and intended, had it
been possible to find water, to the mountains or higher ground, whatever
it might be that formed the limits to this basin on that side.
Thermometer, at sunrise, 65 deg.; at noon, 76 deg.; at 4 P. M., 77 deg.; at 9, 60 deg.;
--with wet bulb, 53 deg..

22D APRIL.--The clouds continued to lower, and a great change in the
temperature accompanied this visible change in the sky, but the mercurial
column remained uncommonly steady. Arrangements for a concentrated party
engrossed my attention so fully this day, with the insertion also of our
late work on the general map, that even the newspapers from the colony
lay unread. Mr. Kennedy took a ride across the river in a S. S. E.
direction, and found a fine grazing country with open forest, as far as
he went, which was about twelve miles. On the banks of the Balonne,
during my absence, they had found, besides a small bearded CYPERUS, a new
creeping PSORALEA [*], and a new species of Acacia, which Mr. Bentham has
named A. VARIANS.[*] Thermometer, at sunrise, 41 deg.; at noon, 76 deg.; at 4 P.
M., 77 deg.; at 9, 61 deg.;--with wet bulb, 56 deg.. Mean elevation of this camp
above the level of the sea, being 50 feet above the river, 623 feet.

[* P. ERIANTHA (Benth. MS.) prostrata, canescenti-pubescens, foliis
pinnatim trifoliolatis, foliolis ovatis oblongisve dentatis, pedunculis
elongatis multifloris, floribus inferioribus remotis superioribus
approximatis, calycibus pube molli albida dense tomentosis, legumine
molliter villoso.]

[* A. VARIANS (Benth. MS.) glabra, pallida v. glauca, ramulis
subangulatis, phyllodiis oblongo-lanceolatis v. inferioribus