Latitude by Capella 16 degrees 47 minutes 58 seconds.
RECONNOITRE TO THE SOUTH.
23rd January.
Leaving the camp in charge of Dr. Mueller, at 6.30 a.m. started in a southerly direction, accompanied by Messrs. H. Gregory and Baines, taking with us four horses and six days' rations, etc.; after clearing the deep rocky gullies near the river, we passed over a more level country with some fine open plains covered with fine grass, but the intervening ridges were very stony; at 9.45 a.m. reached the highest part of the range, and the country declined to the south-east, and intersected by deep rocky ravines trending towards a large valley, which is probably drained by the southern branch of the Victoria; the course was now south-east, descending to the valley of a creek, through a very barren and rugged sandstone country, producing little besides stunted eucalypti, acacia, and triodia. At 11.15 a.m. halted at the creek, and resumed our route at 3.0 p.m., and followed the valley to the south-east till 4.40 p.m., when it turned east through a rocky gorge between cliffs 150 feet high; but notwithstanding the dense bush of pandanus, fallen rocks and deep muddy channel of the creek, we succeeded in forcing our way through the gorge of the creek, and bivouacked in the open valley below at 5.30 p.m., there being a fine patch of grass in the flat, though the surrounding country is rocky and barren. The sandstone rocks show a great disturbance and dip at all angles and directions, so that no general angle or strike could be determined; the upper rocks, however, show a new feature in a coarse conglomerate of fragments of the lower sandstones and a few fragments of basalt; some of the enclosed pieces of rock are nearly a foot in diameter, and are mostly angular, though occasionally round; this rock forms a horizontal bed of 100 feet in thickness. Towards evening the sky was clouded, with lightning to the east, but no rain.
BASALTIC PLAINS.
24th January.
At 6.0 a.m. crossed the creek, and steered south-east over broken sandstone ridges till 8.0, when we entered a plain of basaltic formation covered with good grass, and where the ground was not entirely composed of fragments of rock the soil was a rich black loam; crossing the large creeks trending north, at 10.0 a.m. halted on the second. These creeks appear to rise in a steep range of sandstone hills which bound the basaltic plains to the west, about two miles from our track. At 3.0 p.m. resumed our route and traversed the trap plain for one and a half hours, and bivouacked in a small gully; the country on both sides of our track seems to be of trap formation for several miles, and then rises into sandstone hills with flat tops. The basaltic rock of this plain is not of great thickness, as the sandstone rose in a few spots above its surface and formed small islands covered with coarse vegetation, surrounded by the open grassy plain. The basalt seems to have been poured out into the valley after it had been excavated in the sandstone, and not to have been much disturbed subsequently. The surface of the plain is very stony, and the horses' feet were much injured by the roughness of the rock.
STONE SPEAR HEADS.
25th January.
The night was cloudy, and it was not till after daybreak that I could get observations for latitude by altitudes of Venus and b Centauri. At 6.5 a.m. were again in the saddle, and steered south-east to a rocky hill, which we reached at 7.0; the hill was sandstone, rising about 150 feet above the trap plain; from the summit the view was extensive, but from the broken nature of the country to the east nothing could be traced of either the courses of creeks or rivers; to the south the trap plain rose to a greater elevation than the summit of the hill we were on, and was surmounted by table hills of sandstone at ten miles distance to the east and north-east; the country appeared to consist of plains of basaltic formation, well grassed, and very thinly wooded. Leaving this hill at 8.0, followed a dry rocky creek to the east and north-east, through basaltic plains with sandstone hills and ridges, till 10.30, and halted during the heat of the day. At this place the bed of the creek had been cut through the basalt into the sandstone, exposing a fine section of the junction of the two rocks; the sandstone was much altered at the line of contact, and, having been deeply cracked, the basalt had filled the fissures of the older rock. This altered sandstone and also a white quartz-like rock are much used by the natives for the heads of their spears; and during this day's journey great quantities of broken stones and imperfect spear heads were noticed on the banks of the creek. At 3.45 p.m. recommenced our journey, and proceeded down the creek to the north-east till 6.30, and bivouacked.