Jan. 3.--The night was clear; a fine easterly wind prevailed during the morning, with cumuli, which disappeared towards noon, when the sky became cloudless. Thunder-storms generally follow a very sultry calm morning. We travelled about ten miles in a N.N.E. direction, and came to the farthest water-hole I had seen when out reconnoitring. We passed in our journey through a very scrubby country, opening occasionally into fine flats thinly timbered with true box, which was at that time in blossom. I noticed a small tree (Santalum oblongatum, R. Br.), very remarkable for having its branches sometimes slightly drooping, and at other times erect, with membranous glaucous elliptical leaves, from an inch to an inch and a half long, and three-quarters broad, with very indistinct nerves, and producing a small purple fruit, of very agreeable taste. I had seen this tree formerly at the Gwyder, and in the rosewood scrubs about Moreton Bay, and I also found it far up to the northward, in the moderately open Vitex and Bricklow scrubs. Several small lizards (Tiliqua), probably only varieties of the same species, amused us with the quickness of their motions when hunting for insects on the sunny slopes near the water-holes, and on the bark of the fallen trees; some were striped, others spotted, and there were some of a simple brownish iridescent colour. Our latitude was 24 degrees 6 minutes 36 seconds. Jan. 4.--Brown accompanied me on my usual errand, to find, if possible, a larger supply of water, on which we might fall back, if the creek did not soon change its character. The scrub came close to the banks of the creek, but was occasionally interrupted by basaltic ridges with open forest, stretching to the westward. These ridges were on all sides surrounded with scrub, which did not flourish where the basaltic formation prevailed. Broad but shallow channels, deepening from time to time into large water-holes, follow in a parallel direction the many windings of the creek, with which they have occasionally a small communication. They seem to be the receptacles of the water falling within the scrub during the rainy season: their banks are sometimes very high and broken, and the bed is of a stiff clay, like that of the scrub, and is scattered over with pebbles of quartz and conglomerate. Whilst these Melaleuca channels keep at a distance varying from one to three miles from the creek, winding between the slight elevations of a generally flat country--long shallow hollows and a series of lagoons exist near the creek, from which they are separated by a berg, and are bounded on the other side by a slight rise of the ground. The hollows are generally without trees, but are covered with a stiff stargrass; and they frequently spread out into melon flats, covered with true Box. It is difficult to travel along the creek, especially with pack bullocks, as the scrub frequently comes close up to its banks; but the hollows, during the dry season, are like roads.