Page:Tracks of McKinlay and party across Australia.djvu/390

 route, which, however, they immediately lose by keeping more to the east. Here may arise some confusion. McKinlay comes upon a considerable river, which he crosses and recrosses repeatedly, and which he considers to be the Flinders, and so names accordingly. Landsborough falls in with another, and still larger river, evidently the main stream, which he too calls the Flinders. Between these two branches or supposed branches of the same river system, Walker came upon a third, which he called the Norman, while Burke describes a fourth, the Cloncurry, flowing from the south and west. The Flinders, therefore, embraces a very considerable watershed. We can hardly do better, towards avoiding a confusion of names, than by changing the Flinders of McKinlay to the name of its discoverer, and this without much apprehension from the rival claims of a lesser stream that pursues its unknown course somewhere about the centre of the country.

As the expedition advances eastward, a remarkable change is found in the features of the country. The grassy plains are succeeded by a country of the most rugged and difficult character, consisting of endless successions of hills, rising in some parts to considerable elevation, and presenting all but impassable obstacles to travelling. The Upper Burdekin is reached, rolling its fine clear waters through a country of the same