BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 39 
Sin Tuos. MrrcnugLL's progress on an Expedition to 
discover a route to the Gulph of Carpentaria. 
The Botanist in the above-mentioned Expedition, Mr. 
Stephenson,* thus writes to one of his friends in England 
from— 
The Camp, 
Baloon River. 
April 26, 1846. 
* Àn opportunity having occurred to enable me to send to 
Sydney, I embrace it to forward you the pleasing intelli- 
gence that we are now far beyond the boundary of European 
inhabitants, all in good health, with cheering prospects of 
success in this arduous expedition. Sir Thos. Mitchell is 
gone with a small party, to look for a direct route to the 
Gulph of Carpentaria, and since he left, a dispatch has 
been sent him, which arrived here but yesterday, to inform 
him that Dr. Leichardt had arrived at Port Essington and 
returned to Sydney. We are now on the banks of a 
splendid river, called the Baloon, not at present a running 
stream, on account of the great drought, but it has left self- 
evident marks of enormous floods, wrecks remaining on the 
branches of trees, full 30 feet above the present level of the 
water. The river consists at this time of long reaches, as 
wide as the Thames above the bridges, two or three miles 
in length, full of fish, and covered with numbers of wild 
fowl, but nothing new of the latter has been discovered. 
We have had exceedingly hot weather, the thermometer 
as high as 1771" Fahr., and now, although the begin- Et 
ning of winter, it is 104° Fahr. Every thing is burnt ~~ 
up, and hardly any insects are to be seen, except a few € 
.—. . * Mr. Stephenson formerly made considerable collections. of plants in 
New Zealand, and is likely to render much service to science during the 
nt journey. A list of his New Zealand plants was published b 
Joseph Hooker in the 3rd volume shis iam 3 | 
