quitted the river
Salvator, and travelled along our track of yesterday, or nearly N. W.,
but deviating from this track occasionally, where broken ground or thick
scrub was to be avoided. The highest part of the scrubby land we crossed,
was 1310 feet above the sea. We arrived in good time at the river, where
I had previously slept, and there encamped. On the plains adjacent, the
ACACIA PENDULA grew, as on those near the Bogan; and we saw also various
new and curious grasses, and some very singular shrubs in the scrub. The
banks of the river were steep, and consisted of soft clay. I employed the
party to make a bridge across it, and this was well completed before
sunset. Thermometer, at sunrise, 23 deg.; at noon, 65 deg.; at 4 P.M. 68 deg.; at 9,
40 deg.. Height above the sea, 951 feet. (XLIX.)

14TH JULY.--Crossing the river, (which I called the Claude), we
travelled, first, through an open forest, and then across one of the
richest plains I had ever seen, and on which the ANTHISTIRIA AUSTRALIS,
and PANICUM LOEVINODE, the two best Australian grasses, grew most
abundantly. The soil was black; the surface quite level. There might have
been about a thousand acres in the first plain we crossed, ere we arrived
at another small river, or water-course, which also contained water. We
soon reached the borders of other very extensive plains and open downs,
apparently extending far to the eastward. On our left, there was a scrub
of Acacia pendula. The undulating parts of the clear land, were not so
thickly covered with grass as the plains, not because the soil was bad,
but because it was so loose, rich, and black, that a sward did not so
easily take root and spread upon it, from its great tendency to crack,
after imbibing moisture, on its subsequent evaporation. All this rich
land was thickly strewed with small fragments of fossil wood, in silex,
agate, and chalcedony. Many of the stones, as already observed, most
strikingly resembled decayed wood, and in one place the remains of an
entire trunk lay together like a heap of ruins, the DILAPIDATED remains
of a tree! I obtained even a portion of petrified bark; but specimens of
this were rare. The elevation of the highest part of these downs, was
1512 feet above the sea.

Crossing an open forest hill, which had hitherto bounded our view to the
westward, I perceived a deep grassy valley on our right, sloping towards
a much lower country, but I still travelled westward, in hopes to find