174 Sir T. Mitchell's Expedition into the 
We lost two days in vainly endeavouring to pass to the westward, 
through dense brigalow scrub ; but on a ride which I next took 
north-westward, I was more successful, for after forcing my way 
through ten miles of scrub, I came to what seemed to me the 
finest region on earth : plains and downs of rich black mould, on 
which grew in profusion the panicum Icevinode grass, and which 
were finely interspersed with lines of wood which grew in the 
hollows, and marked the courses of streams; columns of smoke 
showed that the country was too good to be left uninhabited; 
and, in fact, on approaching the nearest river channel, I found it 
full of water. This river I named the Claude, in honour of the 
painter of quiet pastoral scenery, and to the downs and plains 
so favourable to flocks and herds, I gave the name of the 
Mantuan Downs and Plains. I returned to the party on the 
Salvator, crossed that river with it in lat. 24° 31' 47' S., and 
conducted it, cutting our way through ten miles of scrub, to the 
banks of the Claude. These two rivers join at a considerable 
distance lower down, and form the Negoa—a river which, 
according to the natives, pursues a north-east course to the sea, 
and therefore, probably, has its estuary on the shores of Broad 
Sound or its vicinity. 
We were obliged to make a bridge for the passage of our carts 
across the Claude, and then we crossed a plain, upon which grass 
grew almost as thickly as it grew in Australia Felix ; then another 
stream, also full of water, was crossed, and we ascended undu¬ 
lating downs on which fragments of fossil wood were abundant in a 
very rich soil. Beyond these (the Mantuan Downs) a range of 
broken summits appeared, and was certainly ornamental, but 
which we found to be only the upper part of a very intricate and 
difficult sandstone country, wherein the beds of the gullies were 
at a much lower level than the Downs and Plains. I endeavoured 
to penetrate to the westward of these, but found the country 
on that side quite impervious, and we next descended by an open 
gently declining valley to the head of a creek falling north-west; 
this creek soon took us into the heart of the sandstone gullies, so 
that we could only proceed by keeping its sandy bed. Unwilling 
to continue such distressing work (for the cattle especially), aS ll 
