Page:Journals of Several Expeditions Made in Western Australia.djvu/186

 self to a brief outline of our excursion, referring you ( should a more detailed account be required) to the notes which I have kept on the occasion. Having already communicated to you my observations on our route as far as Mount Bakewell, I proceeded from thence on the 20th ultimo, accompanied by Messrs. Moore and Thompson, and one soldier, to explore the country, according to my instructions, for fifty miles to the S.S.E. towards the source of the Avon River; in five miles, after having visited a singular cavern, (alluded to on a former occasion,) we crossed to the opposite or eastern side of that river, at a ford where it was about three feet deep, and running in two channels to the north. The country here was of an open forest character, being lightly timbered with different varieties of the eycaliptus or nut tree, (which I have previously described, and which abounds to the eastward of the range,) resembling, in its growth, the apple, and in its scent, the sandal wood; the casuarina, and several species of the wattle. The soil on the low lands was a red loam and clay; on the uplands and more elevated grounds, there was a sandy loam of a hazel colour, in some places of an extremely friable nature, and covered, generally, with a luxuriant vegetation. The same description of country prevailed to the distance of twenty miles, to the south of Mount Bakewell, when we crossed a vein of eight or nine miles of hard and barren looking clay; the water, in the course of the river, being brackish, and in some places salt. The appearance of the soil, however, gradually improved, as we approached the intended site of Ashbourne, and continued to present the same character, till we bad penetrated as far as sixty miles to the S.S.E. of Mount Bakewell, when we turned to the westward