Cutting through a thick scrub. 
Want of water. 
Impeded by a lofty range of mountains. 
Marks of natives’ feet. 
Maule’s river. 
A grilled snake. 
View on ascending the range of Nundewar. 
Native female. 
Proposed excursion with packhorses. 
Native guide absconds. 
The range impassable. 
Return to Tangulda. 
Prepare to launch the boats on the Namoi.

ENTER AN UNEXPLORED REGION.

We advanced with feelings of intense interest into the country before us, and impressed with the responsibility of commencing the first chapter of its history.  All was still new and nameless, but by this beginning, we were to open a way for the many other beginnings of civilised man, and thus extend his dominion over some of the last holds of barbarism.

SITUATION OF MR. OXLEY’S CAMP ON THE PEEL.

About a mile and a half below Wallamoul, we crossed a small open plain, and I was informed that Mr. Oxley encamped on its southern side, and had afterwards forded the Peel at no great distance from the spot.

WESTWARD COURSE OF THE RIVER.

We crossed a succession of gentle slopes, without any gully or watercourse between them.  After travelling about eight miles in a north-west direction, we came upon the Peel, having thus cut off a great bend of the river.  From that point our route was west and even to the southward of west, until we again encamped near the river, after a journey of fifteen miles.  Some flats crossed by the party this day appeared to be subject to inundations.  One gully only had impeded our carts.  It was about a mile short of the encampment, and it was called Goora by the natives.  It had evidently been long dry, had steep banks, and its bottom consisted of gravel and sand.  The banks of the Peel, thus far, are composed chiefly of extensive flats of good land, thinly wooded, and occasionally flooded by the river.

Only a few of the flats however are quite clear of trees, but where the ground is open, the soil appears to be rich, and presents the same characters which I noticed elsewhere.  We saw a numerous family of kangaroos this day, but although the dogs were let loose, such was the length of the grass, that they could not see the game.  The morning had been clear, but the sky in the afternoon was overcast by a thunderstorm, with a strong gale of wind.  At sunset, the weather cleared up, and the sky became again serene.

December 14.

The sun rose clear, and the party were in motion at seven o’clock.  This day I discovered that the native had sent back his gin early in the morning, a circumstance which I regretted, for the woman had an intelligent countenance, and having been brought from the country towards which we were travelling, she might have been of service to us.

KANGAROO SHOT.