202 THE NORTH-AUSTRALIAN EXPEDITION. 



2. In my letter of the 23rd September,* 1855, I detailed the pro- 

 ceedings of the expedition to that date, the c Monarch* sailing the 

 next morning. 



3. Having organized a party to proceed by land, with the horses, to 

 the upper part of the Victoria, consisting of myself, Mr. H. Gregory, 

 Dr. Mueller, Overseer Phibbs, and six men, the remainder of the party 

 embarked in the ' Tom Tough ' schooner, to which the sheep had been 

 removed from the * Monarch ; ? Mr. Wilson being instructed to ascend 

 the Victoria and form a camp at some suitable spot for disembarking 

 the sheep, if practicable, near Kangaroo Point, and in accordance the 

 schooner sailed from Point Pearce on the 25 th September. 



4. On the 28th, I started from the camp at Providence Hill with 

 the horses, which had been reduced to forty-one, and many of these 

 scarcely able to travel. Pursuing an easterly course through level 

 forest country of indifferent quality till the 3rd October, when we as- 

 cended the Macadam Range, which proved to be only the deeply ser- 

 rated edge of the vast sandstone table-land which occupies so much 

 of the north-west coast of Australia. 



5. On the 4th October one of the horses was seized with sudden 

 illness, and died in four hours; and on the 10th a second horse was 

 lost, under similar circumstances. 



6. On the 11th the party reached the Fitzmaurice Eiver, and 

 camped on a small dry creek, but the tide rising in the night, the alli- 

 gators ascended the creek from the river, attacked the horses which 

 were feeding on the bank, severely wounding three. On the same day 

 a horse had been abandoned, being too weak to travel. 



7 . Crossing the Fitzmaurice Eiver on the 1 3th, at the lowest point 

 at which it was fordable, the water was fresh, twenty yards wide and 

 two feet deep, with a rapid current. Steered southward, and traversed 

 some fine grassy valleys during this day, but soon reaching the stony 

 hills beyond ; were compelled to leave two more horses, as they were 

 completely exhausted, having been for some days so weak that they 

 could not rise without assistance. 



8. The country now became more rocky, so that we did not reach 

 the banks of the Victoria till the 18th, when, after a difficult ascent 

 from Sea Eange, we camped one mile north of the ( Dome.' 



9. The two following days were occupied in travelling up the Vic- 



• Information, nearly to that date, wu communicated to us bv Dr Mueller and 

 » gM» at p . «6 and following pages of the last volume (viii.) of tL Jounud ' 



