f the box with long lanceolate leaves which
prefers stiff flats on the tributary creeks of the Hunter. A Bottle-tree
with a Platanus leaf (Sterculia?) grew in the scrub on the field of
basalt, and was in full blossom. A pretty species of Commelyna, on the
flats, a cucurbitaceous plant with quinquepalmate leaves and large white
blossoms, grew along the river, the approaches of which were rendered
almost inaccessible by a stiff high grass. Charley brought me the long
flower-stalk of Xanthorrhaea from some ridges, which were, doubtless,
composed of sandstone.

Two kangaroos were seen; they were of middle size, and of a yellowish
grey colour, and seemed to live principally about the basaltic ridges.

The cooee of natives had been heard only once during our journey along
the banks of the Burdekin; and the traces of their former presence had
not been very frequently observed. Large lagoons full of fish or mussels
form a greater attraction to the natives than a stream too shallow for
large fish, and, from its shifting sands, incapable of forming large
permanent holes. Wherever we met with scrub with a good supply of water,
we were sure of finding numerous tracks of the natives, as game is so
much more abundant where a dense vegetation affords shelter from its
enemies.

April 14.--Last night, at seven o'clock, a strong breeze set in from the
northward, and continued for about an hour, when it became perfectly
calm. If this was the same breeze which we had observed at the Mackenzie
at eight o'clock, and which set in earlier and earlier, as we travelled
along the Isaacs and Suttor (though it was less regular in these places)
until we felt it at about six o'clock, we were now most evidently
receding from the eastern coast.

We travelled in a N. 60 degrees W. direction to lat. 19 degrees 45
minutes 36 seconds. A basaltic ridge, similar to those we had passed,
extended in an almost straight line from south-east to north-west; it was
covered with a scanty vegetation, with a few small narrow-leaved Ironbark
trees and Erythrinas; the river now approached it, now left it in wide
sweeps enclosing fine narrow-leaved Ironbark flats. To the south-west
side of this ridge or dyke, the soil is basaltic, with box-trees and open
Vitex scrub. The sharp conical hills of the white ant, constructed of red
clay, were very numerous. A very perfect bower of the bower-bird was seen
in a patch of scrub trees.

In a gully, a loose violet coloured san