20th January.
Left the camp at 6.55 a.m. and followed the river in a west-north-west
direction till 8.5, when we crossed at a ledge of rocks which caused a
fall of about one foot, the water being twenty yards wide and one to two
feet deep; but above and below the rapid the river formed fine reaches
seventy yards wide; the course was now west-south-west till 9.0 a.m.,
when the river turned west, and at 10.50 came to a large stony creek from
the south-west, at which we encamped; the country on the banks of the
river rises gradually as it recedes, and, except within the influence of
the floods, is poor and stony, producing little besides a sharp grass
(triodia)--this is the spinifex of some Australian explorers--a few small
gum-trees and bushes. As we progress towards the interior the wet season
appears to have been of less duration and the fall of rain less, yet the
great heat has forced the vegetation towards maturity, and many of the
grasses have already ripened their seeds, while there are many other
indications of the dry season having fairly set in; the wind is steadily
from the south and south-east, and is very dry; the sky is clear and
bright, and the creeks have ceased to run; the almost total absence of
birds or animals shows that we are approaching the limits of the dry
summer season of the southern interior; in the afternoon rode out with
Mr. H. Gregory to examine the country, and found that the river came
through a gorge in the sandstone range; this gorge is two miles long, a
quarter of a mile wide, and 400 feet deep, with nearly perpendicular
sides, the winter channel of the river occupying nearly the whole
breadth, and intersecting the otherwise flat bottom of the valley with
dry sandy channels and long pools of water; beyond the gorge the valley
opened, but the view was intercepted by hills.