farther I might meet with neither, and thus be obliged to continue travelling to-morrow; an exertion which the horses were not in a condition to make.  Nothing can be more irksome than the tedious days’ journeys we are obliged to make through a country in which there is not the smallest variety, each day’s occurrences and scenes being but a recapitulation of the former:  our patience would frequently be exhausted, were we not daily reanimating ourselves with the hopes that the morrow will bring us to a better country, and render a journey, the labour of which has hitherto been ill repaid, of some service to the colony, and of some satisfaction to the expectations which had been formed of its result.

June 15.—­Observed in lat. 33. 49. 09.  S., and long. 145. 54.  E. Mr. Cunningham went upon Peel’s range in search of plants, and found a few new ones; the country to the north appeared hilly and broken, but no scrubs, such as obstructed our progress westward, were seen.  Goulburn’s range had a remarkable appearance, being broken into peaks and singularly shaped hills.  A solitary native was seen by one of our party, but he ran off with great precipitation on friendly signs being made to him to approach.

June 16.—­It blew extremely hard during the night, and rained incessantly, as it still continues to do, with scarcely any intermission.  This morning we had the misfortune to find one horse dead, the same that fell under his load on the 3d instant, and, as he had carried little or nothing since, he appeared to be recovering his strength.  Independently of the continuance of heavy rain, which would certainly have prevented me from attempting to set forward, the ground has become so hollow and soft from the rain which fell during the night, that it was the universal opinion that the horses could not travel under their loads.  It cleared up towards night, with the exception of occasional heavy showers.

June 17.—­Towards morning the weather became fine, with fresh winds from the north-east; at eight o’clock set forward on our journey, the ground extremely wet and soft.

We could not proceed above ten miles when we stopped, one of the horses being completely disabled from going any farther.  The line of country we passed over was rocky, barren, and miserable, the level grounds being a perfect bog; to the westward, low irregular rocky ranges, with blasted and decayed cypresses on their summits, were the only objects which presented themselves to our view.  There was neither grass nor water where we stopped; of course, nothing but the absolute necessity that existed to spare the horses could induce us to halt.  People were sent to search the range for water, but all their endeavours proved fruitless, after wandering in every probable direction until sunset.  The coldness of the air would have prevented us from feeling much inconvenience from this privation, had it been in our power to have satisfied our hunger but salt pork, would have proved an aggravating meal without water; we therefore preferred an absolute fast to the certainty of increasing our thirst.