10th October.
At 7.50 a.m. started with the whole party, and proceeded down the creek
to the head of the salt water, and then by a detour among the rocky hills
reached the running creek visited yesterday, and encamped at 11.0 a.m.; I
then started with Mr. H. Gregory in a southerly direction, and after an
hour's ride came to the Fitzmaurice River, which varied from 100 to 300
yards in width, the general course nearly east and west; the channel was
full of rocks and banks which were dry at low water, the rise of the tide
nearly twenty feet. The hills which bounded the valley of the creek we
had descended terminated in an abrupt rocky ridge which left no passage
between it and the river; we therefore returned about half a mile to the
north, and, after a toilsome ascent of nearly an hour, crossed the ridge
and halted at a small spring on its eastern side till 2.0 p.m., when we
proceeded up the river, crossing two small dry creeks; after a fruitless
search for a suitable spot to which the camp could be moved, there being
no fresh water in the creeks, we turned towards the camp, but could not
cross the range, as we everywhere encountered steep rocks and ravines,
and were glad to extricate ourselves from the hills at 9.0 p.m., when we
bivouacked in a grassy flat.
11th October.
At 4.30 a.m. resumed the attempt to cross the range, and at length found
a practicable route for the pack-horses, passing a small spring of water
at 7.0 a.m., and reached the camp at 8 a.m.; during our absence one of
our best pack animals had died, apparently from poison. At 2.0 p.m. the
party started to cross the range; but the horse Drummer was so weak that
he fell several times, and we were at length compelled to abandon him.
Having crossed the hills to the Fitzmaurice River, we proceeded up the
valley and halted at a salt creek seven or eight yards wide, there being
a little green grass on its banks.
Latitude by observation b Pegasi and a Andromedae 14 degrees 47 minutes
18 seconds.