79 
BEARINGS FROM OXLEY’s TABLE LAND. 
the distance from the mountains still to be about twelve. 
In the morning we started at an early hour, and imme- 
diately entered the brush, beneath which we had slept; 
pursuing a westerly course through it. After a short ride, 
we found ourselves upon a plain, that was crowded with 
flocks of cockatoos. Here we got a supply of water, such 
as it was — so mixed with slime as to hang in strings be- 
tween the fingers ; and, after a hasty breakfast, we pro- 
ceeded on our journey, mostly through a barren sandy scrub 
that was a perfect burrow from the number of wombats 
in it, to within a mile of the hill group, where the country 
appeared like one continuous meadow to the very base of 
them. I never saw anything like the luxuriance of the 
grass on this tract of country, waving as it did higher than 
our horses’ middles as we rode through it. We ascended 
the S.W. face of the mountain to an elevation of at least 
800 feet above the level of the plain, and had some diffi- 
culty in scaling the masses of rock that opposed themselves 
to our progress. But on gaining the summit, we were 
amply repaid for our trouble. The view extended far and 
wide, but we were again disappointed in the main object 
that had induced us to undertake the journey. I took the 
following bearings by compass. Oxley’s Table Land bore 
N, 40 E. distant forty-five miles; small and distant hill 
due E.; conical peak seen from Oxley’s Table Land 
S. 60 E., very distant ; long ridge of high land, S.E., 
distant thirty-five miles; high land, S. 30 E., distant 
thirty miles ; long range, S. 25 W. 
