he
hills about seven miles to the south-west. The first five miles was
across an open grassy plain, at times subject to inundation, which
brought us to the bank of a fine river, containing permanent reaches of
fresh water, lined with canes, the channel generally being from 100 to
200 yards wide, with a depth of forty feet; it was now barely running,
but it was quite evident that it was too large for either the Alma or
Edmund, and its bed must be at least 200 feet below the level of those
rivers. We, however, determined to follow it so long as it ran to the
south of west, which it did until it came in contact with the range
observed yesterday, when it altered its course to west-north-west, and
appeared to continue that direction for many miles, probably until joined
by the Hardey, when, in all likelihood, it continues its course direct to
Exmouth Gulf. Anxious, as I naturally was, to continue the examination of
this promising river, time and the condition of our horses' feet did not
permit us to do so with advantage. Naming it the Ashburton, after the
noble President of the Royal Geographical Society, we quitted its verdant
banks, and took a south course up a stony ravine, which led us into the
heart of the range, where we soon became involved amongst steep rocky
ridges of sharp slaty schist, which very quickly deprived the horses of
many of their remaining shoes, and retarded our progress so much that by
nightfall we found ourselves to be in only latitude 23 degrees 28 minutes
15 seconds, hemmed in on all sides by rugged country yielding little else
but small acacia-trees and triodia. A little water and grass was,
however, obtained in the bed of a stream tributary to the Ashburton. The
summits of the hills passed over during the day had been seen from the
Lyons River in 1858, and were now named the Capricorn Range. Camp 28.

24th June.

A rather rough ride of four hours to the south-east brought us to a
watercourse sixty yards wide, trending to the north-north-east, in which
we found pools of water lined with reeds and flags. This was traced up to
the southward till 3.0 p.m., when we entered a deep gorge in a sandstone
range, the bed of the stream becoming very stony and full of
melaleuca-trees; it, however, contained many fine pools and strong
running springs, with a small supply of grass. There was now a fair
prospect of our reaching the Lyons, as the range we were now entering
must contain the sources of the Edmund,