e river. A beaten
foot-path of the natives, and many fire-places, showed that this part of
it was much frequented by them. Wallabies were very numerous between the
cliffs of the felspathic rock; and the fine fig trees along the banks of
the river were covered with ripe fruit. The river made a wide sweep round
the left side of a large limestone hill, whilst a chain of deep basaltic
water-holes continued on its right. The basalt ceased to the westward of
the limestone hill, and was succeeded by considerable flats of Ironbark,
Moreton Bay ash, and Bloodwood. The Capparis still exhibited a few showy
flowers. I examined the country thus far on the 12th April, after the
camp had been formed; on returning, I took with me a large supply of ripe
figs, of which we partook freely, and which caused several of us to
suffer severely from indigestion, though we had frequently eaten small
quantities of them without inconvenience.

April 13.--We avoided the field of basalt by moving up the creek we last
crossed, about four miles, and by crossing over to the flats of the river
where the basalt terminated. These flats, however, were again interrupted
by a basaltic dyke, over which we were compelled to travel, as the steep
banks of the river were on one side, and black bare rocks, forming
sometimes regular walls with a dense scrub between them, prevented us
from turning to the other. After descending from the basalt, we crossed a
good-sized creek from the south-west, and travelled over a fine open
country to lat. 19 degrees 49 minutes 41 seconds.

Two hills were close to the left side of the Burdekin, which, at their
base, were joined by a large running creek from the N.N.W. From the
limestone hill of yesterday, no other hill was visible to the westward,
though ranges and isolated hills lay to the north and north-east, and a
high blue mountain to the south-west.

Some days ago I found, for the first time, Spathodea alternifolia (R.
Br.), which we continued to meet with throughout the remainder of our
journey. I saw but one flower of it, but its falcate seed-vessels, often
more than a foot long, were very numerous. Pandanus spiralis was
frequent. The box (Eucalyptus), on the flats along the creek, the soil of
which is probably formed of the detritus of basaltic rock, had a
lanceolate glossy leaf, uniting the character of the box with glossy
orbicular leaves growing generally on the whinstone soil of the northern
parts of the colony, and o