Once more the victim of a too sanguine belief, he followed tip his discovery by at once commencing to trace down the river that ran through this new-found paradise. He had made a great contribution to Australian geography, as great as what he hoped for; but if he had been told the truth he would scarcely have been satisfied. He had found the upper tributaries of the second great river system of the interior, as Sturt -had found its lower outflow, and he had thrown open the wonderful western prairies, but he was as far from the Gulf as ever. Light-hearted and satisfied, the party rode on for days through the beautiful undulating downs country. On the 22nd September, we find in his journal a notice of the new kind of grass, which was in future to be so highly prized and to bear his name: "Two kinds of grass grew on these plains, one of them, a brome grass, possessing the remarkable property of shooting up green from the old stalk." On the 23rd, they crossed and named the Alice, and on the 26th, being fully satisfied, and their provisions running short turned back. Mitchell for once, in honour of such a discovery, departed from his usual custom, which was the healthy plan of giving "good, sonorous native names" to the most noticeable features, and called the river the Victoria. On the 6th of October they reached the depôt camp, and found all well. The return to the main depôt, left in charge of Kennedy, was soon accomplished, and on the 19th this was reached, and the occupants found safe and unmolested, although the absence of Mitchell had now extended over the four months. As a proof of the capabilities of the country he had travelled over, Mitchell brought back all his animals in first-rate condition, having lost only one horse, and that was through an accident. The final return was made down the yet unexplored Maranoa, at the head of which the depôt had been fixed so long; and on the 4th November they arrived at the Balonne, having passed through splendidly-grassed and well-watered country the whole way. The party took up their old camp at St. George's Bridge, where they learnt from the natives that a party of whites had been in the neighbourhood during their absence. Kennedy was dispatched to inspect the Mooni ponds, or river, which they understood was to the eastward of them. He found them occupied by cattle stations to within a day's ride of the camp, so that the explorer's work may be considered as at an end. This expedition, it may well be supposed, fully confirmed Mitchell's reputation. Once more he had been the means of assuring the colonists that away towards the setting sun the flocks and herds might advance unchecked, so far as he had been, and as he thought, across the great continent. Added to which, he felt convinced, and expected the public also to feel the same, that along the banks of the Victoria was the great high road to the north coast.