the plain, and had some difficulty in scaling the masses of rock that
opposed themselves to our progress. But on gaining the summit, we were
amply repaid for our trouble. The view extended far and wide, but we were
again disappointed in the main object that had induced us to undertake the
journey. I took the following bearings by compass. Oxley's Table Land bore
N. 40 E. distant forty-five miles; small and distant hill due E.; conical
peak seen from Oxley's Table Land S. 60 E., very distant; long ridge of
high land, S.E., distant thirty-five miles; high land, S. 30 E., distant
thirty miles; long range, S. 25 W.

To the westward, as a medium point. the horizon was unbroken, and the eye
wandered over an apparently endless succession of wood and plain. A
brighter green than usual marked the course of the mountain torrents in
several places, but there was no glittering light among the trees, no
smoke to betray a water hole, or to tell that a single inhabitant was
traversing the extensive region we were overlooking. We were obliged to
return to the plain on which we had breakfasted, and to sleep upon it.

D'URBAN'S GROUP.

D'Urban's Group is of compact sandstone formation. Its extreme length is
from E.S.E. to W.N.W., and cannot be more than from seven to nine miles,
whilst its breadth is from two to four. The central space forms a large
basin, in which there are stunted pines and eucalyptus scrub, amid huge
fragments of rocks. It rises like an island from the midst of the ocean,
and as I looked upon it from the plains below, I could without any great
stretch of the imagination, picture to myself that it really was such.
Bold and precipitous, it only wanted the sea to lave its base; and I
cannot but think that such must at no very remote period have been the
case, and that the immense flat we had been traversing, is of