13th October.
At 6.15 a.m., we were again in our saddles, and continued journey up the
river--the general course north-north-east. In vain we looked for some
rising ground or hill from which we might obtain a view of the country,
but the same sandy level, covered with dense thickets of wattles, still
met the eye till 11.0, when we observed a low sandstone cliff forming the
eastern side of the valley. In this direction we steered, and after
pushing through thickets of wattle growing on stony ground, with small
patches of salsolaceous plants, we arrived at the foot of the cliff,
which was about sixty feet in height, of white sandstone, full of rounded
quartz pebbles. The top was nearly on a level with the general plane of
the country, which was of a most cheerless aspect. The valley of the
river trended to the north-north-east for eight or ten miles, then to the
east; the width appeared about five miles, and one dense thicket of
wattles seemed to fill the entire space. The rest of the country was,
without the slightest exception, level in the extreme, covered with one
universal thicket of acacia and cypress, the latter indicating the sandy
nature of the soil. As no appearance of change in the character of the
country within twenty or thirty miles was visible, and we had only two
days' provisions left (not having expected the stream to extend so far),
and the camp at sixty miles distant, we were obliged to leave the farther
examination of the river to some future explorers; but we regretted it
the less as, from the nature of the gravel and sand brought down by the
stream, there seemed great probability that it takes its rise in large
salt marshes similar to those known to exist 100 miles east of the Irwin,
if it does not actually drain them, as the general trend of the most
northerly marshes seen was in the direction of the upper part of the
Murchison. Under these circumstances, we returned to our bivouac of last
night, reaching it at 5.40 p.m.
14th October.
Started at 6.25 a.m., and retracing our route down the river, came to our
bivouac of the 11th at 5.5 p.m. without any incident worthy of notice,
but surprising three or four natives asleep in the bed of the stream;
they were of the party seen on our route up the river.
15th October (Sunday).
Resumed our journey; passed two parties of natives; a few of them
followed us some distance, and having overcome their first surprise,
commenced talking in their own language, which, as far as we could
understand it, had great affinity to that spoken by the natives in the
York and Toodyay districts. After a smart ride of seven hours we arrived
at the encampment, found the rest of the party all well, and the horses
much improved by their few days' rest.