30 
Report of the Expedition 
We passed several fine lagoons on the flats along its lower course. 
It had a running stream from latitude 17 deg. 25 min. 
The rock of the upper Lynd is primitive; granite, sienite, peg¬ 
matite, hornblende; lower down, talcschist, broken by porphyry, 
appear; and before the river enters the/lats, it is accompanied by 
sandstone ranges, which, in some places, form perpendicular walls 
on both sides of the broad sandy bed. 
It is interesting to see how we descend from the table-land 
to the gulf from the same series of rock through which we had 
ascended from the east coast along the Burdekin, only in an 
inverted order. 
Many new trees made their appearance on the ranges as well 
as along the river and within its bed. I shall mention a gum tree, 
with showy orange blossoms, very big seed vessels, two inches 
long, one inch broad, with a short foliaceous bark, the upper 
branches remaining white and naked. We called it tea-tree gum, 
as the foliaceous nature of its bark reminded us of the tea tree. 
This tree was not observed at the east side of the gulf, but 
re-appeared very extensively at the west side up to Port Essing- 
ton, forming the even forest round Victoria. Several other forest 
trees, intermediate between the blood-wood and gum tree, were 
observed. All these trees are, however, of no use to the settler 
or squatter, as the fibre of their wood is too interwoven to allow 
splitting; nor is their bark easily stripped. The iron-bark disap¬ 
pears where the Lynd enters into the flats, and it is wanting all 
round the gulf. At the neck of the Coburg Peninsula is a tree 
which resembles the iron-bark; but it is rare, and differs essentially 
from it. The stringy bark, the blood-wood, and the box, are the 
only forest trees which accompanied us to the end of our journey, 
always re-appearing where the soil favoured their growth. 
From latitude 16 deg. 30 min. to 15 deg. 51 min. we travelled 
along a fine river, with a running stream, now narrow and shal¬ 
low, now swelling into fine long sheets of water. I called it “ the 
Mitchell,” in honour of Sir Thomas Mitchell. A belt of open 
forest accompanies its banks Farther off, the country opens 
more and more, and changes into a series of plains, extending 
parallel to the river. They are limited by a forest of small acacia 
