On the 13th of May we came to a very strange spot, where a number of whitish, flat-topped hills hemmed in the river, and where the conjunction of three or four other creeks occurred with the Ashburton, which now appeared to come from the south, its tributaries coming from the east and north-east.  On the most northerly channel, Peter Nicholls shot a very large snake; it was nearly nine feet long, was a foot round the girth, and weighed nearly fifty pounds.  It was a perfect monster for Australia.  Had we been without food, what a godsend it would have been to us!  It would have made two or three good meals for the whole party.  I called this place the Grand Junction Depot, as the camp was not moved from there for thirteen days.  The position of the camp at this Grand Junction was in latitude 24 degrees 6’ 8”, and longitude 119 degrees.  At this time I had a second attack of ophthalmia; but on the 15th, thinking I was recovering, I went away in company with Alec Ross to penetrate as far north as the 23rd parallel of latitude, as I was in hopes of finding some new hills or ranges in that locality that might extend for a distance eastwards.  We took four camels with us, three being the same animals which Alec and I took when we found the Boundary Dam.

Leaving the depot, we went up the most easterly of the creeks that came in at the Grand Junction.  In its channel I saw some of the milk or sow-thistle plant growing—­the Sonchus oleraceus.  I have met this plant in only four places during my explorations.  The trend of the creek was nearly from the east-north-east.  At six miles the gum-timber disappeared from the creek, and the channel being confined by hills, we were in a kind of glen, with plenty of running water to splash through.  A great quantity of tea-tree—­Melaleuca—­grew in the creek bed.  There we saw another large snake, but not of such dimensions as Nicholls’s victim.  At ten miles up from the depot the glen ceased, and the creek ran through a country more open on the north bank.  We camped at about twenty miles.  During the day we saw some native poplars, quandong, or native peach, capparis, or native orange, and a few scented sandal-wood-trees; nearly all of these different kinds of trees were very stunted in their growth.  At night my eyes were so much inflamed and so painful with ophthalmia, that I could scarcely see.  The next day we steered north-north-east, the ground being very stony and bad for travelling.  We passed some low hills at seven or eight miles, and at twenty-one we encamped in a dry, stony creek channel.  The following day the country was almost identical in its nature, only that we found a small pool of water at night in a creek, our course being still the same.  My eyes had been so bad all day, I was in agony; I had no lotion to apply to them.  At length I couldn’t see at all, and Alec Ross had to lead the camels, with mine tied behind them.  I not only couldn’t see, I couldn’t open my eyes, and had no idea