THE INTEKIOK OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA. 177 



W. 10° S., about fourteen miles distant, and towards it we sliaped our 

 course, crossing three more streams of smaller size, and fresh, running 

 to the southward in grassy valleys, the developments in which made us 

 long to linger on spots so geologically interesting ; for in some of them 

 the slaty coal-shales appeared, and were closely traced as far as visible. 



The intervening ridges were high, steep, and rocky, and well covered 

 with thicket and scrub, which appeared also to continue on the lower 

 grounds, as these hills broke off into a descent half a mile to the south. 



The horses' feet now suffered so much from the extreme roughness of 

 the rocks, the sharp, knife-like edges of which in many places required 

 the greatest care in avoiding, that I did not regret when a valley, 

 deeper and wider than the others, at length lay at our feet, and pro- 

 mised to afford them a respite on its well-grassed flats. Descending 

 its steep and rugged slope, we encamped at four o'clock, in the midst 

 of luxuriant grass, in a valley half a mile wide, through which was 

 winding, in a very tortuous course, the river which "Bob" had de- 

 scribed to us as draining the eastern side of the range. Here the 

 scenery was altogether rich and beautiful, such as, in contrast with our 

 former scrubs and thickets, we seemed never tired of contemplating. 

 It was however limited, and the effect chiefly produced by the abut- 

 ment into the rich grassy valley of several small projections from the 

 higher land, composed entirely of fragments of red sandstone, quartz, 

 and thin scales of micaceous slate, of every hue and colour. These 

 projections, and their intermediate little grassy ravines, were beautifully 

 studded with wattles, and small ornamental trees ; and above all rose 

 a dense mass of dark green foliage, reminding us but too forcibly of 

 the impenetrable thickets with which we had contended in the interior. 



As the morning of this day had been wet and stormy, with much 

 thunder and lightning from the S.E., and clouds were again piling up 

 in heavy masses, threatening a continuance of the storm, I avoided all 

 trees and conspicuous objects in selecting our camp ; and fortunate it 

 proved that I did so, as before the sun went down, a thunder-storm, 

 which had been gathering in the N.W.. burst furiously upon us from 

 the opposite quarter, and would have swept everything before it, had 

 we not been sheltered by a little thicket of saplings. This continued, 

 and even increased, and until early morning we seemed to be the sport 

 of one continued black thunder-storm, passing from S.E. to N.W., and 

 vice versa. The lightning gleamed and darted about us most vividly. 



i A 

 VOL. VI. 



