uring the afternoon, with wind from the W.N.W; during
the night it usually clears up.

Nov. 10.--The country along the river changed, during the last two
stages, considerably for the worse. The scrub approached very near to the
banks of the river, and, where it receded, a disagreeable thicket of
Bastard-box saplings filled almost the whole valley: fine lagoons were
along the river, frequently far above its level; the river itself divided
into anabranches, which, with the shallow watercourses of occasional
floods from the hills, made the whole valley a maze of channels, from
which we could only with difficulty extricate ourselves. "I never saw
such a rum river, in my life," said my blackfellow Charley.

The open forest was sometimes one large field of everlasting flowers with
bright yellow blossoms; whilst the scrub plains were thickly covered with
grasses and vervain. Almost all the grasses of Liverpool Plains grow
here. Ironstone and quartz pebbles were strewed over the ground; and, in
the valley, fine-grained sandstone with layers of iron-ore cropped out.

Large fish were seen in the lagoons; but we only succeeded in catching
some small fish of the genus Gristes. Muscles continued to be frequent;
and we saw the gunyas of the natives everywhere, although no native made
his appearance.

It was here that I first met, growing on the scrubby hills, a species of
Bauhinia, either shrubby or a small shady tree, with spreading branches;
the pods are flat, of a blunt form, almost one inch in breadth, and from
three to four inches long. The Bricklow seems to prevent the growth of
almost all other vegetation, with the exception of a small shrub, with
linear lanceolate aromatic leaves. An Acacia, with long drooping, almost
terete leaves, grew along the river; and Crinums grew in patches amongst
the everlasting flowers, on a sandy soil. Our latitude, of the 9th
November, was 25 degrees 53 minutes 55 seconds; and that of the 10th, 25
degrees 47 minutes 55 seconds, at about eleven miles north-west from the
camp of the 8th November.

Until the 14th of November, we travelled down the Dawson. In order to
avoid the winding course of the river, and the scrub and thickets that
covered its valley, which rendered our progress very slow, we had
generally to keep to the ridges, which were more open. We several times
met with fine plains, which I called "Vervain Plains," as that plant grew
abundantly on them. They were surrounded with scrub