tree.)

In crossing the low ridge which separates the plains from the Namoi we
again toiled through very soft ground. It occurred chiefly on the sides
of slopes, and in the midst of forests of eucalypti, where I should have
expected the hardest kind of surface. We made the Namoi however in good
time; this being the first of our former stages which we had been able to
accomplish in one day since the wet weather commenced. The late rains had
produced no change in the waters of this river; a circumstance showing
perhaps that less had fallen in the south-east than on the plains where
we had been.

None of the kind of fish that we most prized (Gristes peelii) could now
be caught in this river, though abundance of that which the men commonly
called bream (Cernua bidyana) a very coarse but firm fish which makes a
groaning noise when taken out of the water; and here it may be observed
that the colour of the cod or Peel's perch was lighter, and that of the
eel-fish (tandanus) darker in the Karaula than in any other river.

REGAIN THE NAMOI.

February 24.

A fine cool morning. I attempted to cut off a slight detour in our old
track by travelling nearer to the course of the Namoi; but a soft and
swampy flat soon compelled me to seek the former wheel-marks, and even to
proceed still nearer to the base of the hills, for the sake of hard
ground. We next travelled westward of our line, thus crossing an
excellent tract of country; and without further impediment we arrived on
Maule's creek, which we crossed with all our carts and equipment to
encamp on the left bank. The limpid stream was not much, if at all,
augmented.

From this side of the country, now that smoke no longer obscured the
horizon, the outline of the great range was very bold, a lofty and very
prominent pyramid crowning the most elevated south-western extremity, and
forming as important a point for the survey of the country to the
south-west as Mount Riddell presents for that towards the north-west.
This point I named Mount Forbes after my friend Captain Forbes, 39th
Regiment, then commanding the mounted police in New South Wales. That
great range presents three principal heads, of which Mounts Riddell and
Forbes are the northern and southern, the central or highest being Mount
Lindesay.

February 25.

The party moved to the former encampment at Bullabalakit. In passing near
the place where we set up our tents on quitting the canvas boats, I
sought my buried s