I had not found any westerly waters on my ride of the 13th, but had seen a range to the north-west, and that was the goal of a new exploration. As we had been fortunate enough to find water at the contact of the primitive and basaltic formation, I wished to follow the same line of contact as long as it would not carry us much out of our course. We crossed, in a northerly direction, several granitic ranges which ran out into the table land, and were separated from each other by very large swamps, at the time mostly dry, and covered with a short withered swamp grass, but bearing the marks of frequent inundations. The bed of these swamps was perfectly level, and formed by an uninterrupted sheet of basalt. Chains of water-holes between the ranges, which I hoped would lead me to creeks, were lost in the level of these swamps; indeed, these granitic ranges were remarkably destitute of watercourses. The coarse elements of the decomposed rock, principally pegmatite, had formed uniform slopes, in which even heavy showers of rain were readily absorbed; but rounded blocks of rock, sometimes curiously piled, protruded from the granitic sands. Pandanus spiralis fringed the scattered water-holes; and Grevillea chrysodendron, (R. Br.) formed a wreath, of pale silver-colour, round the swamps, but grew on sandy soil. White cranes, the ibis, geese, native companions, and plovers, were very numerous; and the large ant-hills scattered through the forest at the foot of the hills, looked like so many wigwams. From one of the ranges I had another view of the north-west range, and we started for it, leaving the primitive country behind us. A cold, southerly wind set in on the morning of the 18th, which made Brown and myself shiver, and I most gladly availed myself of a flannel shirt, whilst Brown covered himself with his blanket. We rode about five hours over an undulating forest land, interrupted by one or two plains, and for the greater part exceedingly stony. We came at last to fresh burnt grass, and observed recent marks of the stone tomahawk of the natives; and, having passed a stony slope, with irregular low stony ridges, we saw an oak-tree creek before us, on the opposite side of which rose the granitic range for which we had directed our course. This creek also ran on the line of contact of primitive and basaltic rocks; the primitive side was cut by gullies and ravines, whilst the basalt formed a steep uninterrupted slope, though covered with boulders which had been carried down even into the sandy bed of the creek, where they were intermingled with those of granite and pegmatite. I called this creek "Separation Creek," in allusion to its geological relations: at the point where we met it, it turned to the north and north-west, which made me believe that it was a westerly water; but in this I was mistaken. We had some slight showers of drizzling rain during the afternoon. The wind veered towards evening to the northward, and the night was clear.