not extend. On the
same range, a fine tableshaped mountain appeared nearly north. This I had
already intersected from other stations, and named Mount Faraday. The
hill on which I stood consisted of trap-rock, and seemed to be almost the
western extremity of Hope's Table Land. A copious spring was afterwards
found by Mr. Stephenson, in a valley to the eastward of this summit. That
ravine was extensive; and in it grew various remarkable trees. The
bottle-tree (Delabechea) grew more gregariously than we had ever seen it,
in the stony banks of the channel of the torrent from the hills. One
thorny tree or shrub (first seen at the base of Mount P. P. King) again
appeared here; it was, generally, in a withered state; had a leaf
somewhat like the human hand, and a pod containing two peas of a bright
scarlet colour, about the shape and size of a French bean. This,
sometimes grew to a tree as much as a foot in diameter; and the natives,
who, like Nature herself, may be said to do nothing in vain, had cut one
down, and carried off the whole of the trunk. The wood was of a leaden
colour. This proved to be a new species of ERYTHRINA, or coral tree.[*]
By our last day's journey, we had lost two miles of northing, and had
thus recrossed the 25th parallel of south latitude. I therefore
determined to cross our friendly little river, and look for another
beyond the range to the northward. Thermometer, at sunrise, 44 deg.; at noon,
68 deg.; at 4 P. M., 65 deg.; at 9, 38 deg.. Height above the sea, 1732 feet. (XLI.)

[* E. VESPERTILIO (Benth. MS.); glaberrima, caule fruticoso aculeato,
foliorum petiolo elongato, foliolis trilobis lobo medio recto acutiusculo
lateralibus multo majoribus falcato-divaricatis obtusissimis.--Although
no flowers were seen, the genus of this shrub is well indicated by the
pod and the general habit. The leaflets are often above four inches broad
and not two inches long, not unlike the form of a bat with its wings
extended.]

1ST JULY.--With that view, I rode towards Mount Faraday, anxious to look
into the valley beyond it. After a two hours' ride, I passed under its
western summit, and still pressed forward, in hopes of seeing at length
into the valleys beyond. I thus entered a very thick scrub, so impervious
that I was obliged to turn westward, until I came upon sandstone gullies
into one of which I descended. Following this downwards, I found it fell
to the westward, and in a hollow part of its rocky bed I came