At eight miles we came to a chain of deep ponds which seemed a tributary to some greater water, as indicated by the yarra trees and flats before us, apparently covered with verdure. On advancing into these flats however we found them soft and swampy, being so very wet and so covered with dead trees that we were obliged to retrace our steps and turn eastward, thus crossing to a higher bank altogether east of the chain of ponds; and along this we proceeded without seeing any further continuance of the deep serpentine channel, full of water, which appeared to terminate there. That woody swamp seemed very extensive and was the only instance met with in the course of our travels of the termination of a stream in a swamp, although I understood subsequently that this was the fate of various minor brooks descending towards that part of the interior plains. We found there a curious black-headed grass which proved to be of the carex genus. At 11 1/2 miles we arrived at a running stream, its course being northward; and at 15 1/2 miles we reached a very fine little rivulet flowing between grassy banks twenty-five feet high, the soil consisting of a red earth similar to that on the interior plains and the banks of the Murray.
MOUNT TRAFALGAR. RUGGED COUNTRY STILL BEFORE US.
October 21.
At five miles we were abreast of a pointed hill which I ascended and named Mount Trafalgar in honour of that memorable day. From it I obtained a view of the country before us, and I perceived in the direction of our intended route some high cone-shaped hills. A ridge extended from them to the westward, but its height seemed gradually to diminish in that direction, although it presented two very abrupt and remarkable hills whose steepest side being towards the north overlooked as I supposed the spacious basin of the Murrumbidgee. One solitary mount appeared much farther to the westward and was also steep-sided towards the north. On descending I shaped my course towards the hollow where the ridge could be most easily crossed. At 8 3/4 miles we met with some good ponds of water and beyond them the winding channel of a smaller watercourse falling southward from the range already mentioned. After crossing and recrossing this channel and its various branches we at length gained the crest of the range, and I directed the party to halt while I hastened to a conical summit on the left, apparently the highest and most pointed of those previously observed. It consisted of syenite and from it I obtained a very extensive view to the northward, but yet could not see any favourable opening in the direction in which I wished to reach the Murrumbidgee: on the contrary as we reduced our distance from home the obstacles to our reaching it seemed to increase.
PROVISIONS NEARLY EXHAUSTED.
Our provisions had been counted out to a day, and any delay beyond the time required to cross that country at our usual rate of travelling might have been attended with great inconvenience. Mr. Stapylton's party, then so far behind, were depending upon us for supplies; while a labyrinth of mountains, entirely without roads or inhabitants, was to be crossed in a limited time with carts before any such supplies could be obtained and sent back. Some high and distant mountains appeared to the eastward, and in the west I intersected the hills I had previously seen which were now much nearer to us. On returning from the hill to the party we descended from the range into some flats of good open land where a solitary kangaroo became an object of intense interest now that our provisions were exhausted. The week was out for which the last of our stock had been issued in very small rations; and although most of the men had endeavoured to make this very reduced week's allowance to last them nine days no mutton remained, nor could it well have been preserved during such hot weather. This kangaroo would have been therefore a most welcome addition to our store; but we had no dogs and I was so anxious as to venture a shot at too great a distance and to our great disappointment it escaped. We finally encamped in a valley which fell to the right or eastward, near some good ponds, and after performing a journey of upwards of 15 miles. I found near the hill I first ascended in the morning a new kind of grass with large seeds.*
(*Footnote. Danthonia eriantha, Lindley manuscripts; panicula subcoarctata lanceolata, spiculis sub-4-floris gluma laevi multo brevioribus, palea exteriori laevigata basi apiceque villosissima, aristis lateralibus subulatis debilibus intermedia brevioribus, foliis setaceis vaginisque patentim pilosis, collo barbato.)
October 22.
Soon after we set out this morning we approached a range of barren hills of clay-slate on which grew the grass tree (xanthorrhoea) and stunted eucalypti. On ascending this range I perceived before me a deep ravine, and beyond it hills less promising than even these which were sufficiently repulsive to travellers with wheel-carriages. Turning therefore from that hopeless prospect towards the eastward, we crossed the head of a valley falling to the right, and after a somewhat tortuous course we gained the highest part of a range beyond it, from which a grassy vale descended on the opposite side towards the north-east. This vale turned to the left after we had followed it 2 1/4 miles and we next crossed a ridge of quartz rock.
CATTLE TRACKS FOUND.