_ id in extent, anything of the kind I had ever seen. 
~ viously explored; and although I could not follow the 
370 SIR T. L. MITCHELL’S DISCOVERIES 
every clear night, Fahrenheit’s thermometer fell to 9 deg, - 
and occasionally at 4 a.m. the mercury was as low as 7 deg.”* 
Resuming his journey with a small party, the Surveyor- 
General reached a gap in a westerly range, connected with 
hills to the-northward, in long. 146? 42/ E., lat. 24° 50' S. 
“ On ascending the range early next morning, I saw open 
downs and plains, with a line of river in the midst, the whole 
extending to the N.N.W. as far as the horizon. Following 
down the little stream from the valley in which I had passed - 
the night I soon reached the open country, and during ten 
Successive days I pursued the course of that river, through 
the same sort of country, each day as far as my horse could 
carry me, and in the same direction, again approaching the 
tropic of Capricorn. In some parts the river formed splendid ; 
Teaches, as broad and important as the river Murray; in 
others it spread into four or five channels, some of them 
several miles apart: but the whole country is better watered 
by numerous tributaries arising in the downs than ney other 
portion of Australia I have seen. The soil consists 
rich clay, and the hollows give birth to water-courses, © 
most of which water was abundant. I found, at length, that 
I might travel in any direction and find water at hand, \ 
out having to seek the river except when I wished to as -— 
its general course, and observe its character. The grass 
-sists of Panicum levinode and several new sorts, one of w 
springs green from the old stem. The plains were ve 
indeed, the luxuriant pasturage surpassed in quali 
y l treet and sait bush (Salsole) (so essential 
. ru); are also there. New birds and new plants ma 
this out as an essentially different region from any I ha 
throughout its long course at the advanced season, 
* This, if there is not an error in the quotation, is a most. 
nary circumstance, ‘Twenty-five degrees of frost at an elevation 
9000 feet in latitude 25° S. has never previously been recorde 
. 1 Sir T. Mitchell considers this to be the Acacia pendula, A- | 
