14th April.
At 6.10 a.m. resumed our journey up the creek in a southerly direction,
the valley gradually narrowing, and in one part of the sandstone rocks
came close to the banks of the creek, leaving scarcely space to pass
between them and the deep pools of water; at 12.30 p.m. camped on the
right bank. The basaltic hills appeared to turn to the south-east, and we
now entered the sandstone country. The valley of this creek appears to
offer the best line of access to the upper part of the valley of the
Victoria, as it is nearly level from Hutt Plains to 10.40 in this day's
journey, beyond which point drays would have to ascend the hills and turn
to the south-east to reach Roe's Downs, which is the finest part of the
country yet examined. A short distance below our camp we saw several
native paintings on the sandstone rocks; they consisted of rude outlines
of fish and snakes, some in red ochre and others in white clay. Mr.
Baines sketched some of the most remarkable.
Latitude by Argus 16 degrees 55 minutes.
15th April.
At 6.25 a.m. recommenced our journey and followed the creek, which turned
to the west, and the country became extremely rugged, and at length, as
the valley became impassable, we ascended the hills and steered
south-west across a very rocky sandstone country to the basaltic plains.
Changing the course to west-north-west, crossed two tributary creeks, and
at 3.40 p.m. camped on the bank of the creek, which was now much reduced
in size. The country to the north of the creek consisted of very rough
and rocky hills of red sandstone, extremely barren in appearance, while
to the south it rose into the basaltic plain which forms Roe's Downs.
Latitude by Argus 17 degrees 6 seconds.
16th April.
Resumed our journey at 6.45 a.m. and travelled in a west by north course
towards a remarkable basaltic hill, which I called Mount Sanford,
traversing a fine open grassy country till 1.0 p.m., when we camped on a
creek with permanent pools of water. The rough stony country has rendered
the horses quite footsore, and their legs are much cut and bruised by
constantly falling over the large rocks in crossing the deep ravines and
rocky ridges.
Latitude by Vega 16 degrees 59 minutes 38 seconds.