328 DR. LEICHHARDT’S TRAVELS. 
deep burrows of a probably unknown animal were observed. 
The entrance was by a large hole, four or five feet deep, from 
the bottom of which the burrow passed horizontally under ground. 
Tt was about one foot and a half in diameter, and would indicate 
an animal of the size of the beaver. Its tracks resembled those 
of a child two or three years old, and its dung was like 
that of the kangaroo. The creek was lined with Water-gum and 
Tea-tree, and well provided with large reedy water-holes; it 
was called “the Yahoo River.” At night, when they were 
sitting round the fire, they heard a loud shrill disagreeable call 
of a night bird; Woommai, the native, succeeded in shooting it, 
and it proved to be a beautiful little owl. Ten miles west of the 
“Yahoo,” they crossed another large creek, with large reedy water- 
holes in its sandy bed. The intervening country is covered with 
Cypress Pine and Dodonæa scrub. When seen from the west- 
ward of the large creek, which was named “ Frederick’s Creek,” 
it appeared in form of a low range; the approaches from the 
eastward of the creek were fine and open. They continued 
their course to the westward for ten miles over sandy ridges, 
covered with most wretched Cypress Pine scrub, and came to a 
large creek with reedy water-holes and sandy bed, which was 
called * Bunce’s Creek ;” its direction was from S.W. to N.E. 
The slopes towards the creek were openly timbered with Box; 
_beyond it there was a long range extending from north to south, 
which they crossed in latitude 26° 59’. Scarcely two miles to 
the westward they came to sandstone ridges which were covered 
with scrub, composed of Cypress pine, Dodonea, and Bricklow, 
and which extended fully ten miles to the westward. Here 
another species of Acacia, akin to the Bricklow, formed a scrub 
worse than any they had yet met; dead timber made the road 
extremely circuitous, and the progress slow, and as it was fre- 
quently overgrown with thick underwood, it became dangerous 
for the mules and horses to pass through it. Being tired of an 
„apparently never-ceasing succession of these Acacia ridges, they 
followed a water-course W. 30° S. for about three or four miles, 
and found a good supply in a rocky water-hole. Shortly after 
