Maitland Brown.] On the 29th of May they struck the river which was subsequently named the Fortescue.

As this river seemed likely to answer their expectations of a passage through the broken range that hemmed them in to the south, they followed it up.

A narrow precipitous gorge forced them to leave the river, and, after surmounting a table-land, they steered a course due south to a high range, which, however, they found too rough to surmount.
Making back on to a north-east course, they again struck the Fortescue, above the narrow glen which had stopped them.

They followed it up once more through good country, occasionally hampered by its course lying between rugged hills; but they finally crossed the range, partly by the aid of the river-bed, and partly through a gap.

On the 18th June, they succeeded in completely surmounting the range, and found that to the south the decline was more gradual.