ll pronounced to be the finest in Australia, with the
exception of the Murray. He then struck and followed the Culgoa upwards
until it divided into two branches; he skirted the main one, which
retained the name of the Balonne. On the 12th of April he came to the
natural bridge of rocks which he called St. George's bridge, and which is
the site of the present town of St. George. Here a temporary camp was
formed; Kennedy was left in charge to bring the main body on more slowly;
Mitchell with a few men went ahead. He followed up the Balonne to the
Maranoa, but as the little he saw of that tributary did not tempt him to
further investigation of it, he kept on his course up the main stream
until he reached the junction of a stream which he named the Cogoon. This
riverlet led him on into a magnificent pastoral district, in the midst of
which stood a solitary hill that he named Mount Abundance. It is in his
description of this region in his journal that we first find an allusion
to the bottle tree.

The party wandered on over a low watershed and came down out on to a
river which, from its direction and position, he surmised to be the
Maranoa, the stream he had not followed. At this new point it was full of
deep reaches of water, and drained a tract of most pleasing land. On its
banks he determined to await Kennedy's arrival.

Kennedy overtook him on the 1st of June, bringing from Sir Thomas's son
Roderick despatches which had reached the party after the leader's
departure. Amongst other items of news in the despatches was the report
of Leichhardt's return, and of the hearty reception that he had been
accorded in Sydney. One piece of random information, a mere floating
newspaper surmise, but enough to arouse Mitchell's suspicious temper,
annoyed him greatly. "We understand," it ran, "the intrepid Dr.
Leichhardt is about to start another expedition to the Gulf, keeping to
the westward of the coast ranges."

As this seemed to indicate an intention of trespassing on Mitchell's
present field of operations, he naturally felt some resentment not likely
to be allayed by such a paragraph as the following: "Australia Felix and
the discoveries of Sir Thomas Mitchell now dwindle into comparative
insignificance."

Again leaving Kennedy, he set out to make a very extended excursion.
Traversing the country from the head of the Maranoa, he discovered the
Warrego River. Keeping north, over the watershed, for a time he fondly
imagined that