At our noon halt Mr. Moore and myself ascended a hill of red schist of 300 or 400 feet elevation, in latitude 23 degrees 57 minutes 15 seconds, which had been named Mount Thompson. From this hill we had an extensive view of the surrounding country; close to the northern foot the river divided into two nearly equal parts--one coming from the north-north-east we named the Alma. To the north, just resting on the edge of the tropic, lay a compact range through which there was apparently but one break, and that was on the line of the Alma; from the southern face of this range, which extends nearly forty miles to the eastward, numerous streams take their rise and flow southward into the Lyons, which had altered its course and was now coming from the east-south-east. Our intention had been to keep our course until we had touched upon the tropic; but as the Alma was not running, we decided upon following the main course of the stream, and accordingly adopted an easterly course for the remainder of the day, encamping about six miles to the east of Mount Thompson. The river here was much narrower, with a rocky bed containing many pools of permanent character, overshadowed by flooded-gums of large growth, much resembling the Eucalyptus piperita of the flats of the Swan, but not possessing the same pungent leaf.
30th May (Sunday).
Found our latitude to be 23 degrees 58 minutes 32 seconds, and longitude 111 degrees east by account.
31st May.
NATIVE TOBACCO.
We started off at a quick pace, clearing sixteen miles by noon, over some fine open grassy flats, timbered for nearly a mile back from the river; one tributary 100 yards wide having joined from the north, and a smaller one from the south. Leaving the party busily occupied catching fish, which were abundant in this part of the river and much resembling those found in the Murchison, but larger, some of them being upwards of a pound in weight, I walked with Mr. Nairn to the summit of a granite hill two miles to the northward, from which I had a number of cross-bearings to hills already observed from Mount Thompson. One of considerable elevation bearing north 121 degrees 30 minutes east, distance fifty miles, lay directly up the valley of the river, and was ultimately named Mount Augustus, after my brother, now conducting the expedition in quest of the remains of Dr. Leichhardt. Pushing on twelve miles further, we halted for the night in latitude 23 degrees 59 minutes 39 seconds. Tobacco here grew to sufficient size for manufacture, occupying many hundred acres of the best land; a plant much resembling stramonium was also abundant on the moist land, yielding a strongly offensive odour from its leaves.
1st June.
For the first twelve miles along the river the flats much improved, and were only occasionally broken up by stony ridges; good country was seen to extend up the tributaries, several of which came in from the north. To the south, at two or three miles distant, and running parallel to the river for many miles, was an even grassy range of moderate elevation nearly destitute of trees or bushes; the acacia and melaleuca, which had hitherto generally covered the plains, was evidently fast giving way to an open undulating and thinly-grassed country, the back lands being however still too stony to yield much pasture, the summer grass being already parched and dry, the flats alone continuing moist and verdant.
At our noon halt the main river had ceased to flow, but a tributary coming from the north-east had a small stream still running in the bottom of a muddy channel down which the recent floods had brought flags and portions of bulrush, the only instance throughout the district in which we had observed them.
The next ten miles passed over between this and sunset was chiefly an alluvial flat, much resembling the fertile lands near the mouth of the Greenough; the acacias and several varieties of melaleuca, amongst which was the Callistemon phoeniceus, with its beautiful scarlet flowers, were growing with tropical luxuriance, the soil in many places being still saturated with moisture. A water-melon was here first observed, the fruit not attaining to more than two inches in length, but not otherwise differing from the cultivated kinds; we also found a fruit in shape like a pear, three inches in length, growing on a small creeper, the interior of the fruit consisting of a number of small flat seeds, to which were attached a bundle of long silky fibres resembling cotton. Our bivouac was in latitude 24 degrees 7 minutes 52 seconds, near a fine pool of fresh water, with limestone cropping out in a thin bed on the banks; we had frequently met with it distributed in small nodules scattered over a large portion of the country on the Upper Murchison.