crossed our path, and occasionally fair-sized creeks. Such a one
is Christmas Creek, which, where we saw it, is made up of three creeks
from fifty to eighty yards across, running almost parallel and not more
than half a mile apart. These soon meet and form a fine creek which joins
the Fitzroy many miles to the Westward. These creeks are fringed with
gums, Bauhinia, and Leichardt trees, all affording splendid shade--and
following the banks on either side is a belt of high grass and shrubs,
from which occasional kangaroos and wallabies bounded, alarmed by the
sound of our advancing caravan.

On the north side of Christmas Creek we crossed the first auriferous
country we had seen since leaving the Neckersgat Range, close to Lake
Darlot. Standing on a high peak of white, sandy-looking quartz, a hill
which I named Mount Hawick after my first mate in West Australia, Lord
Douglas of Hawick, innumerable jagged ranges rose before me in all
directions. To the south could be seen the Cummins Range, bounding the
desert; to the north the black, solid outline of the Mueller Range. And
now we were in surveyed country, and without much difficulty I could
identify such points as Mount Dockrell, the Lubbock Range, McClintock
Range, and others, and was pleased to find that after all our wanderings
we had come out where I had intended, and in a general way had followed
the line I had pencilled on the chart before starting.

Mount Hawick's approximate position is lat. 18 degrees 53 minutes long.
127 degrees 3 minutes; five miles from it, in a N.W. direction, we found
a splendid pool in a deep gorge, whose precipitous sides made it hard to
find a passage down which the camels could reach the water. For fear of a
sudden downpour and consequent flood in the creek, we camped on the flat
rock above the pool. Fish, small and bony, but of excellent flavour,
abounded in the water, and we were soon at work with needles, bent when
redhot into hooks, baited with pieces of cockatoo flesh, and pulled out
scores of the fish; Godfrey, whose skill in such matters is very great,
accounting for over a hundred in a very short time. These were very
welcome, for we had run out of meat for some days past, nor had we been
able to shoot any birds or beasts.

Pigeons and other birds came in small quantities to drink, and kangaroo
tracks were numerous; in spite, however, of braving the mosquitoes near
the water by sitting up all night, we did not even get a shot. C