Page:Journals of Several Expeditions Made in Western Australia.djvu/82

 an open forest scene, the trees consisting almost entirely of blue gum. This peculiarity I have observed in another part of the mountains about the same distance in the interior. Continuing our course due east, we were afterwards obliged to make a short detour to the southward, and as the country was swampy, we had some difficulty in again crossing the last-mentioned stream, the banks of which were composed of a rich alluvial deposit. Leaving this second branch of the Swan behind us, at about two miles farther eastward, we halted for a short time during the middle of the day, on the banks of a small stream which Mr. Brockman and myself traced to its source, and were led to think it might have its origin in a lake. On our ascending it for a mile in a S.E. direction, it appeared to terminate and be formed by the draining of swampy land; we here observed numerous traces of emus. On returning to our party, we again proceeded eastward, and taking a more elevated course, passed over two and a half miles of a barren description of country, the trees being of a more stunted growth, and the soil sandy, having its surface covered with fragments of iron stone. Descending this ridge into a valley, we had the satisfaction of discovering the first stream running to the eastward, the timber on its banks consisting of blue gum, casuarina, and black wattle, and a tree similar in its growth to the apple, which bore a fruit resembling in form, although exceeding in size, an unripe hawthorn berry; its wood has a remarkably sweet scent, and the bark a delicate pink colour; a specimen, which we brought home with us, has been pronounced by some professed judges to be sandal wood.

August 5th,—,Last night's rain having rendered the country insecure travelling for the horses, we