26th June.
Left the camp at 7.0 a.m., and followed the creek upwards to the
east-south-east for five miles. The valley was about one mile wide, with
fine grassy flats, bounded by sandstone cliffs 50 to 200 feet high, and
forming tableland with deep ravines. The valley now turned to the east
and east-north-east; some small tributaries joined the creek from the
south-east, the sandstone cliffs disappeared, and the outline of the
hills became rounded and rose about 300 feet above the creek. Shallow
pools of water with dry shingle between, and an occasional deep
waterhole, characterised the channel of the watercourse. At 1.30 p.m.
camped on the left bank of the creek in an open grassy flat; the higher
land very stony and indifferent.
Latitude by Canopus 15 degrees 40 minutes 49 seconds.
27th June.
The temperature was lower at sunrise this morning than on any other day
since landing in North Australia, being only 41 degrees. A little dew on
the grass, and a light air from the east. At 6.50 a.m. started and
followed up the creek to the east-north-east till 1.0 p.m., when we
camped at a deep pool of water 20 yards wide and 200 yards long. Our
attempts to procure fish were unsuccessful. The country consisted of low
stony hills, thinly wooded, and the flats of the creek from a quarter to
three quarters of a mile wide continued to be well grassed. On the north
side of the creek a few miles back the hills rose to a greater elevation,
and formed table-topped hills; some with cliffs of sandstone near the
summits, and others smooth grassy slopes. The latter, from the colour of
the grass, appeared to be of trap formation, and fragments of this rock
were found in the bed of the creek. Soft shales were exposed in the
gullies and on the sides of the hills, and were overlaid compact gray
sandstones.
Latitude by b Centauri, a2 Centauri and Arcturus 15 degrees 37 minutes 15
seconds.
28th June.
Left the camp at 7.15 a.m., and followed up the creek to the
east-north-east till noon, when we reached the last water in its channel
near a steep range of sandstone hills, or rather tablelands; the country
traversed was an undulating plain of trap formation resting on gray
sandstone; it is thinly wooded, and well grassed; water was abundant in
the creek below the camp; above the channel was dry, and soon divided
into small gullies; in the afternoon ascended a hill three-quarters of a
mile north-west of the camp; the lower portion was a dark compact trap or
basalt, and the summit a horizontal bed of sandstone about 200 feet above
the camp; the country to the north was very level, and only occasionally
interrupted by flat-topped sandstone hills, the view extending at least
thirty miles; to the south and south-west a country of trap formation
extended for twenty miles, and to the east the tableland rose about 300
feet above the camp, and was composed of the same strata as the hill
ascended, but surmounted by the ferruginous conglomerate, which is the
highest rock of the new red sandstone series.
Latitude by b Centauri, a Centauri and Arcturus 15 degrees 33 minutes 13
seconds.