30th April.
Finding that the Murchison was leading us too much to the eastward, the
object of the expedition being to reach the Gascoyne with as little delay
as possible, we quitted the river on a north-north-east course for about
eight miles over a tolerably grassy plain, in some parts open, with
atriplex and samphire, and in others rather thickly studded with acacia
and melaleuca. Ascending a granite hill of 150 feet elevation, the plain
was observed to the eastward to extend to the horizon, only broken by one
remarkable bold trap hill at the distance of twenty miles, which was
eventually named Mount Gould, the main Murchison flowing round its
southern base, while a considerable tributary from the north-east passed
close under it to the north-west. To the north of our position the
country rose into a succession of stony ridges thinly grassed and nearly
destitute of trees; in the valleys the kangaroo grass was tolerably
plentiful and quite green--a sufficient evidence that we had now arrived
within the influence of the rains that had produced the recent
inundation, which gave us every hope of being able to push across the
country intervening between this and the Gascoyne. We accordingly altered
our course to north-west for the remainder of this and the following day,
crossing several tributaries to the Murchison, in which we found plenty
of water, and on their banks an abundant supply of grass for our horses,
the streams being generally divided from each other by low stony ridges
or plains of red sandy loam, yielding a rather scanty supply of grass.
3rd May.
Having rested the party the previous day, it being Sunday, in latitude 25
degrees 33 minutes 48 seconds, at a fine pool of fresh water in a stream
running south, and apparently tributary to the Murchison, we resumed our
course for three or four miles up a branch of the stream upon which we
had been encamped, which terminated at a gentle stony ascent; another
mile brought us to its summit, which proved to be the watershed between
the Gascoyne and Murchison; its elevation was found to be 1,500 feet
above the sea. From this ridge a short descent northward led us to the
head of a watercourse, which we followed in the same direction for
seventeen miles, augmented by several small tributaries; turning to the
westward, it formed a junction with another river coming from the
eastward, in latitude 25 degrees 14 minutes 23 seconds, at an elevation
of 1,144 feet above the sea.