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It has two, or, in some places, three distinct channels, and in the flat country through which it passes these are divided by large drooping melaleucas.
All at once, the water disappeared; the deepest holes were dry; the Melaleucas were not to be found; the flooded-gums became very rare, and the rich green grass was replaced by a scanty wiry grass. The whole river seemed to divide into chains of dry water-holes, scarcely connected by hollows.
We also passed narrow belts of low sandy loam, covered with Banksias, broad-leafed Melaleucas, and the orange-coloured Grevillea I have before spoken of. On these flats we again met with large ant-hills, six to ten feet high, and eight feet in circumference; the land at the base was of a reddish colour. September 9.
The highest flood-marks we observed were from six to eight feet above the level of the bed; these marks were on the trunks of Casuarinas, Melaleucas, and flooded-gum, which grew along the channel.
In the more sandy tracts of bloodwood forest, grew the Nonda, the Pandanus, and the apple-gum. The shallow creek was surrounded by a scrub of various myrtaceous trees, particularly Melaleucas. The creek afterwards divided into water-holes, fringed with Stravadium, which, however, lower down gave way to dense belts of Polygonum.
After making but a short stage, over ironstone ridges, covered with stringy-bark, and loamy flats, producing Melaleucas and Grevilleas, we camped beside a small creek, in the sandy bed of which there was no water, but from which we soon obtained some by digging a hole about two feet deep. We afterwards found there was plenty of water in the creek higher up to the eastward. August 29.
Not a tree had been left standing in the part where we crossed, nor could we tell how far the devastation had extended to the south-west; but the ground to the north and east being swampy, and covered only with small Melaleucas and Banksias, the wind had not taken much effect. Many of the trees in the middle of the fallen timber measured two feet in diameter.
Before reaching the water we crossed four red sand hills, with spinifex, running north-east and south-west, having broad valleys between, in which are growing melaleucas, gum-trees, and grass. After rain they retain water, but now are quite dry.
We travelled over the Box-tree flat, until we reached the open basaltic ridges mentioned on the 23rd December, and kept along their base. The creek, which had disappeared on the flat, here again formed a large deep channel, lined with Melaleucas.
Where the river left the scrub, it entered into a wild water-worn box flat, and cut up into several irregular channels, lined by a dense thicket of narrow-leaved Melaleucas of stunted growth and irregular shapes. The Box-tree itself is here a different species, the bark has deeper fissures, and the young wood is very yellow.
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