17th January.
Started at 7.5 a.m. and steered a south-west course till 10.30 a.m.,
passing over a level grassy flat the whole distance; but the soil became
more sandy as we proceeded up the river; there is very little wood of any
description; the few trees that exist are white-stem eucalypti and a few
acacia with pinnate leaves; the horse Sam is very weak, and two other
horses are lame and can scarcely travel; since the 3rd of January the
distance travelled has not exceeded ten miles per diem; water and grass
everywhere abundant, and the loads not heavy, yet the greater part of the
horses appear to be unable to perform a greater amount of work.
Latitude by Aldebaran 16 degrees 36 minutes 43 seconds.
18th January.
Some of the horses having strayed towards our last camp, we were detained
till 8.10 a.m. and then steered south for three miles; the sandstone
hills here closed in on each side of the river, scarcely leaving a
passage at the base of the steep rocks; here the horse Sam fell into a
pool of water, and when extricated could not stand; this having caused
considerable delay, we encamped in a grassy flat half a mile farther on;
in the evening sent Bowman and Dean to bring the horse to the camp, but
they found him dead; marked a tree near camp 14.
19th January.
The night was fine, with heavy dew, the temperature 73 degrees at
sunrise; having collected the horses and saddled at 6.45 a.m., left the
camp and followed the valley of the river on an average south-west
course, crossing a large creek from the north-west; the valley of the
river expanded to three miles and then narrowed to one mile, and the
course of the river was nearly west till 10.50 a.m., when we encamped;
the soil of the valley is a brown loam, producing abundance of grass; but
the hills, though less rocky, are more barren than lower down the river;
the character of the channel of the river has altered, and has the
appearance of a stream which continues to run late into the dry season,
as the channels are narrow and fringed with pandanus, melaleuca, and
other trees which grow near permanent water; the banks are of less height
and the timber on them grows to a greater size than lower down the
valley; at 1.0 p.m. the thermometer 100 degrees, and the wet bulb 76
degrees, indicating 24 degrees of evaporation.