25 
from Moreton Buy to Port Essington. 
generally the companion of water, and its drooping foliage gave 
a rich shade. 
The flat country which we had entered was covered with nar¬ 
row-leaved iron-bark, with box, and a new species of gum, which 
we called poplar gum, as its leaf and foliage resembles very much 
in form and verdure the trembling poplar of Europe. The ground 
of the iron-bark forest is generally rotten ; that of the box is sound, 
as the box grows on a stiff soil, which is also the case with the 
poplar gum. Patches of scrub appeared as we came lower down 
the creek. Some puddled water-holes of the scrub gave us the 
necessary supply of water. 
The flat country continued, the scrub increased, and formed 
belts of various breadths along the creek ; fine open undulating 
country, interrupted, however, by bands of scrub, extend to the 
north and north-west. 
This creek brought us to a river with a broad sandy bed and 
high banks, lined by fine flooded gum-trees and casuarinas. It 
was entirely dry ; but in a rushy swamp, parallel to its banks, fine 
water was found. I named this river the “ Isaacks.” From lati¬ 
tude 22 deg. 20 min. to latitude 21 deg. 35 min. we travelled 
along the Isaacks in a north-north-westerly course, following it 
up to its head. 
The bed of the river was dry, with some few exceptions, until 
we came to the sandstone range near its head ; black fellows’ wells 
were frequent, and the presence of fine water-holes in a more 
favourable season was indicated by a wreath of reeds surrounding- 
dry basins. The water-holes which supplied us with water were 
parallel to the river, or in little creeks adjoining it, the rain-water 
being collected in puddled basins. These water-holes were gene¬ 
rally at the outside of scrubs. 
In latitude 22 deg. 11 min. a range extends at the left side of 
the river parallel to it. I named it “ Coxen’s Peak and Range.” 
It forms an excellent landmark. The river breaks through two 
ranges, striking from north-west to south-east, and its heads are 
at the north side of the most northern one, in an undulating 
country. Flats one and two miles broad accompany the river. 
A belt of scrub, sometimes very narrow, separates them from an 
