Country between Moreton Bay and Port Essington. 87 
appeared to have been broken by a still more recent eruption of 
lava, which expanded partly over it, and formed as wild and irre¬ 
gular fields of rock as ever covered the slopes of a volcano. 
We travelled along the Burdekin during April and May, and 
we had, with two trifling exceptions, neither rain nor thunder¬ 
storms ; but though the days were frequently exceedingly hot, we 
still felt the night breeze from the northward, and the clear nights 
were so cold and dewy that we greatly enjoyed our fires. 
From the ridges and mountains which rose above the table-land, 
the waters descended not only to the valley of the Burdekin in a 
south-east direction, but also to the north-east and to the west¬ 
ward. The country along the creeks was open and flat, as long 
as they passed over the table-land; but when they descended, 
their channels deepened, their banks became surrounded with 
steep ranges, and their beds were either formed by solid rock or 
covered with loose shingle and boulders, which rendered it impos¬ 
sible to travel within or along them, and compelled us to find a 
circuitous passage beyond the neighbouring ranges and gullies. 
4. The fourth division of my journey embraces the Lynd, the 
Mitchell, and the east coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria. The 
fall towards the level country, which forms a broad belt round the 
Gulf of Carpentaria, is much more rapid than the ascent from the 
east coast; and the course of the Upper Lynd is much more 
mountainous and wild than that of the Upper Burdekin. 
It is extremely interesting to the geologist to observe the same 
succession of rocks, granite, talchiste, porphyry, and sandstone, 
in descending to the Gulf, which he found at the east coast in 
ascending to the table-land. But limestone was not met with on 
the west side of the York Peninsula, though it appeared exten¬ 
sively developed on the Burdekin. Basalt has broken through the 
various rocks, but the level country itself is formed of a clayey 
ironstone with grains of quartz, which extended all round the 
Gulf to Port Essington, and may be considered of a newer 
formation. 
The Lynd was joined by several running creeks, and was in its 
whole course well supplied with water. The country was openly 
timbered, and well grassed, and at the lower part of the Lynd 
