267 



ascended Minto Craigs, where I found an impublished 

 species of Acacia, one of Hovea, Laslopetalum^ Croton, Lepto- 

 spermum^ of Aspidlum and Alyxia, with the Epidendrum proli- 

 ferum. The hills are composed of a compact silicious trap, 

 forming large precipices. To the west is an extensive valley, 

 containing a plain of considerable magnitude, while the 

 Teviot meanders to the south of Flinders' Peak. On the 

 north, I saw some large flats or plains, reaching to the base 

 of Mount French. At the base of these Craigs, I killed an 

 enormous brown snake, nearly eight feet long, in an almost 

 torpid state. Our course (west by north) led us through a 

 tract of rugged forest ranges, covered with ironstone and 

 trap, the former in nodules, enclosing indurated clay, which 

 rendered travelling difficult for our cattle. At twelve, we 

 descended into the flats that I had descried from Minto 

 Craigs, (Dalhousie Plains,) which proved exceedingly marshy. 

 They abound in Emus, and enclose some of the largest ponds 

 in the east coast of New Holland. Finding it impracticable 

 to penetrate from this point to the Gap or Pass in the Divid- 

 ing Range, seen by Mr. Cunningham in 1827, without 



g the eastern extremity of Mount French, (called 



Mount 



Araucaria 



that mountain is clothed, though we felt most anxious to ob- 

 tain a view of the country west of that Range, and to satisfy 

 the curiosity of those persons who have been interested in 

 the surveys of 1827 and 1828; we were, nevertheless, obliged 

 to abandon it from that point, and to pursue a more easterly 



Course. 



arose irom no wujujg 



the part of any of us to relinquish the former plan, but was 

 forced on us by the reduced state of our resources, and the 



ery 



n^eans that could be devised for their relief. I had been a 

 'letermined enemy to the employment of those animals pre- 

 vious to this excursion, but I am now convinced, from what 

 Capt. Logan has effected with them, as well as from my own 

 experience, that celerity of movement is the only point in 

 ^hich they are inferior to horses. 



