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JOURNAL OF AN EXPEDITION under the direction of Ensign Dale, to the Eastward of the Darling Mountains; in August, 1831.
Having provided a sufficient supply of provisions for three weeks, and prepared whatever was necessary for my expedition, I left Perth in the morning of the 31st of July, and in the morning reached Messrs. Thompson and Trimmer's, on the Swan River, a distance of about seven miles. On the following morning, I proceeded to Mr. Brockman's, four miles higher up, who proposed accompanying me on my intended expedition. I was obliged to await there the arrival of the boat I had despatched from Perth with my provisions, and then succeeded in swimming our horses over the river, after experiencing some danger in the attempt, owing to the Swan, from late heavy rains, having overflowed its banks to a considerable height.
On the 2nd of August, having arranged our different packages, and reduced them as much as possible, I proceeded with my party, consisting of Mr. Brockman, one soldier, and a store-keeper, the two latter each leading a pack-horse to carry our baggage across the plain, which extends from the left bank of the Swan to the base of the Darling range, until we reached, in a course varying from north to east, the foot of those hills, the ascent of which we commenced up a narrow defile, through which a stream was running to the westward. Following this for one mile, we left it on its leading us too far to the southward, and proceeded due east till we
