By nightfall, I was unable to proceed any further, owing to the large stones and rocks that interposed themselves.

Retracing my steps, therefore, for a mile or two, to a little grass I had observed as I passed by, I bivouacked for the night, being, as well as the horses, quite knocked up.

The native boy, who accompanied me, was equally fatigued; and we were both lame from walking across so rugged a country, over a great portion of which we found it quite impracticable to ride.

Our stage could not have been less than twenty-five or twenty-six miles during the day, yet we had not met with a drop of water, even though we had high ranges, large watercourses, and huge gum-trees on every side of us.

As usual, the traces of high floods were numerous; and the channels of these watercourses, confined as they are by precipitous ranges, must, at times, be filled by rapid and overwhelming torrents, which would collect there after heavy rains.
Some great progressive change appears to be taking place in the climate and seasons of this part of the country, as, in many of the watercourses, we found all the gum-trees either dying or dead, without any young trees growing up to replace them.