In accordance with the plan decided upon yesterday, I started this day accompanied by Messrs. Brown, Harding, and Brockman, with three pack-horses, conveying eight days' provisions and fourteen gallons of water. Twelve miles on the south-south-west course, over a very stony country, brought us to a deep stream-bed trending in the same direction, which we pursued for thirteen miles, the country gradually improving until the channel was lost in an open plain of rich soil, covered with fine green grass. Several pools of rainwater of a deep red colour, but fresh and sweet, gave us a good camp for the night; a set of Stellar observations giving the latitude 23 degrees 19 minutes 16 seconds. To the south, at about six miles distance, lay a bold range of hills, running nearly east and west with many sharp summits, having an average elevation of from 600 to 1000 feet above the plain, and extending for twelve or fifteen miles to the eastward, while to the west it was lost in numerous broken hills of lesser elevation. Camp 27.
ASHBURTON RIVER. CAPRICORN RANGE.
23rd June.
As to pass the eastern end of the range appeared likely to take us too much off our course, we struck for what appeared to be a break in the hills about seven miles to the south-west. The first five miles was across an open grassy plain, at times subject to inundation, which brought us to the bank of a fine river, containing permanent reaches of fresh water, lined with canes, the channel generally being from 100 to 200 yards wide, with a depth of forty feet; it was now barely running, but it was quite evident that it was too large for either the Alma or Edmund, and its bed must be at least 200 feet below the level of those rivers. We, however, determined to follow it so long as it ran to the south of west, which it did until it came in contact with the range observed yesterday, when it altered its course to west-north-west, and appeared to continue that direction for many miles, probably until joined by the Hardey, when, in all likelihood, it continues its course direct to Exmouth Gulf. Anxious, as I naturally was, to continue the examination of this promising river, time and the condition of our horses' feet did not permit us to do so with advantage. Naming it the Ashburton, after the noble President of the Royal Geographical Society, we quitted its verdant banks, and took a south course up a stony ravine, which led us into the heart of the range, where we soon became involved amongst steep rocky ridges of sharp slaty schist, which very quickly deprived the horses of many of their remaining shoes, and retarded our progress so much that by nightfall we found ourselves to be in only latitude 23 degrees 28 minutes 15 seconds, hemmed in on all sides by rugged country yielding little else but small acacia-trees and triodia. A little water and grass was, however, obtained in the bed of a stream tributary to the Ashburton. The summits of the hills passed over during the day had been seen from the Lyons River in 1858, and were now named the Capricorn Range. Camp 28.
24th June.
A rather rough ride of four hours to the south-east brought us to a watercourse sixty yards wide, trending to the north-north-east, in which we found pools of water lined with reeds and flags. This was traced up to the southward till 3.0 p.m., when we entered a deep gorge in a sandstone range, the bed of the stream becoming very stony and full of melaleuca-trees; it, however, contained many fine pools and strong running springs, with a small supply of grass. There was now a fair prospect of our reaching the Lyons, as the range we were now entering must contain the sources of the Edmund, which river has a much more restricted course than was originally supposed. Camp 29.
Latitude 23 degrees 42 minutes 15 seconds.
25th June.
The country continued hilly for about ten miles, when we arrived at the summit of a granite and sandstone tableland, at the extreme sources of the watercourse we had been following up. From this point we had at last the satisfaction of observing the bold outlines of Mount Augustus, bearing south-south-east about thirty miles, while more to the westward could be discerned the summits of Mounts Phillips and Samuel, and yet more to the right the southern face of the Barlee Range. Descending to the south across an open plain, we struck for a remarkable gorge in a granite range (the only one now between us and the Lyons), at which we arrived by sundown. On examining this singular gorge, it was found to be an almost perpendicular cut through a narrow ridge nearly 300 feet in depth, the length of the pass not exceeding 200 yards, the plain on each side being nearly on the same level. From the summit of this pass the course of the stream could be traced across the fertile flats of the Lyons until it was lost in the numerous channels of that river, and I was able to obtain bearings to many well-remembered objects noticed on my former visit to this part of the country. Camp 30.
Latitude 23 degrees 56 minutes 45 seconds.