of the valley.

When I returned to the camp, Mr. Gilbert told me, that Mr. Roper and John
Murphy had been on a mountain towards the head of the main creek,
north-west from our camp, and that they had seen an open country before
them. I therefore started, on the 2d December, with Mr. Gilbert to
examine it. Our admiration of the valley increased at every step. The
whole system of creeks and glens which join "Ruined Castle Creek," would
form a most excellent cattle station. With the exception of the narrow
gorge through which the main creek passes to join the Creek of Palms
[Mr. Arrowsmith is of opinion that such a junction is improbable, if
the author is alluding to the creek, called Palm Tree Creek, which he
fell in with about 60 miles to the S.E.--ED.] to the south-east,
which might be shut by a fence not thirty yards long; and of the
passable ranges to the north-west, which lead into a new country,
and which form the pass seen by Roper and Murphy, it is everywhere
surrounded by impassable barriers. Beautiful grass, plenty of water in
the lower part of the creek, and useful timber, unite to recommend this
locality for such a purpose. The creeks to the east and south-east are
also equally adapted for cattle stations. After passing a stony ridge
covered with spotted-gum, from which the remarkable features of the
country around us--the flat-topped mountain wall, the isolated pillars,
the immense heaps of ruins towering over the summits of the
mountains--were visible, we descended a slope of silver-leaved Ironbark,
and came to a chain of water-holes falling to the east. Travelling in a
north-westerly direction, and passing over an openly timbered country,
for about two miles, we came to the division of the waters, on a slight
ridge which seemed to connect two rather isolated ranges. We followed a
watercourse to the northward, which, at seven miles [In the original
drawing the watercourse is not more than two miles long, according to
Mr. Arrowsmith, so that seven miles must be a mistake.--ED.] lower
down, joined an oak-tree creek, coming from the ranges to the eastward.
Here water was very scarce; the banks of the creek were covered with
Bricklow scrub; and a bush-fire, which had recently swept down the valley,
had left very little food for our cattle: the blady-grass, however, had
begun to show its young shoots, and the vegetation, on some patches of
less recent burnings, looked green. Sterculia (heterophylla?) and the
Bott