ered with scrub; some patches of
grass and wattles occupied the lower ground wherever the granite rock
showed itself; tracing the stream-bed downwards, we found many brackish
pools. At 3.45 crossed the left bank--found it running, but brackish; and
at 4.20 we bivouacked at its junction with the Hutt River, which was here
about ten yards wide, with narrow grassy flats on both banks. The hills
are of sandstone and sand, producing little besides scrub.

18th October.

Started at 7.50 a.m., steering north 140 degrees east magnetic up the
valley of the Hutt, which gradually widened and improved, the hills being
grassy for an average distance of two miles back from the stream, of
granite formation, and thinly sprinkled with wattles; behind the grassy
land the country rose into sandy plains, covered with short scrub. At
9.20 crossed to the left bank; the river trended to the eastward. At
11.10 sighted King's Table Hill, bearing south magnetic. We then
descended into the rich and grassy valley of the Bowes River; this we
traversed till 4.0 p.m., when we bivouacked in a small stream tributary
to the Bowes. As the country passed over this day had not been previously
examined, we were much pleased to find it equal to the best land on the
southern branch of the Bowes, visited by the Surveyor-General and myself
on former occasions.

FINE PASTORAL COUNTRY.

19th October.

Messrs. Burges, Bedart, and myself rode down the Bowes to examine the
country, and found it generally of good grassy character, suitable for
sheep; the bed of the streams being filled with broad-leaved reeds, seems
to indicate an abundant supply of water in the dry season; but the pools
were very small, and the water all brackish, not even excepting the
running streams. The hills are of gneiss, with garnets and trap-rock, the
latter producing excellent grass of various kinds, the most conspicuous
of which is a species of kangaroo-grass, but of a less woody character of
seed-stalk than that found in other parts of the colony. The extent of
land fit for sheep-feeding on this stream (it can scarcely be called a
river) I should estimate at 100,000 acres, and Mr. Burges considered it
capable of feeding about 17,000 sheep. The existence of garnets, iron
pyrites, and a mineral resembling in many of its properties plumbago,
specimens of which were found in the gneiss of this district, seems to
indicate a metalliferous formation, and I have little doubt a further
searc