E DARLING.

I accordingly crossed the Darling with four men, and proceeded straight
for the hill over a very open country and plains which were tolerably
firm. On my way however I saw nothing new as to ground. The clay plains
were bounded by a ridge of red sand (extending south-west and north-east)
at a distance of four miles. On this ridge were divers casuarinae and
beyond it was a low polygonum hollow, and a watercourse in which water
evidently sometimes ran north-east (!) and a duck-net stake, fixed
opposite to a tree, still remained there. It appeared that in all these
side channels or tributaries of the Darling the water flowed upwards, or
FROM the river, a circumstance not unlikely to happen where the main
channel rolls the accumulated waters of distant regions through absorbent
plains on which partial rains can have but little effect.

At about eight miles we reached firm gravel consisting of small and very
hard stones, precisely similar in character and position to that near
Mount Murchison. The pebbles were mixed with red earth which also formed
part of the lower features connected with the height before us. We
crossed a deep gully, the bed of a creek in rainy seasons, but which had
now been long dried up. The very hard sandstone still appeared, weathered
to a purple colour; the lower part was most ferruginous, and not so hard
as above; in the creek below I observed a red crust of clay and nodules
of ironstone.

NEW SPECIES OF CASSIA.

There were several rocky and deep ravines in the side of the principal
height, and in these the oat-grass, or anthisteria, appeared (for the
first time since we had left the upper Bogan) also several plants which
were new to me, and among them a bush of striking beauty, with a rich
yellow flower, being a species of cassia.*

(*Footnote. This plant was found by Mr. Cunningham in 1817 on Mount
Flinders, when he called it C. teretifolia. Dr. Lindley had described it
as follows:

C. teretifolia, Cunningham manuscripts; incano-tomentosa, foliis pinnatis
5-6-jugis eglandulosis: foliolis teretibus filiformibus obtusis,
paniculis terminalibus, ramulis corymbosis sub-5-floris, bracteolis
ovatis obtusis concavis calycibusque tomentosis.)

VIEW FROM THE SUMMIT OF MOUNT MACPHERSON.

The summit of Mount Macpherson was clear but did not afford the view I
expected. The height consisted of some ridges which did not appear much
higher further to the westward: those in that direction bein