Page:Tracks of McKinlay and party across Australia.djvu/56

 1862, he started on a course across Australia by way of the Flinders.

Reaching the Flinders on the 19th of February, he was disappointed in finding all tracks obliterated by the rains that had fallen since Walker's visit. This fine river, which was struck at about 100 miles from the sea, he followed further upwards in a south-easterly direction for 280 miles, where it still presented a bed 120 yards wide, with a shallow stream flowing over it. He estimated the Flinders to be 500 miles long, which makes it probably the most considerable of the rivers of Northern Australia. From this fine stream a short journey of twenty miles across a low dividing range, brought the party to the head waters of the Thompson, where they found that some colonists from the Queensland settlements had preceded them, in search of suitable pastoral stations. Following this river for the greater part of its course, they crossed from it eastwards to the upper part of the Cooper or Barcoo, and thence to the Warrego. Here a change in the features of the country takes place. While the north, under the influence of genial rains, has been covered with verdure, this more southerly district has been suffering from a rather long continued drought, and all the fine grass has disappeared. An effort is made to maintain a southerly course to Cooper's Creek, in order to reach the depôt established