ttracted my
notice, that in the evening M'Leay and I crossed the river in hope to
get a shot at it. We had, however, hardly landed on the other side, when
a loud shout called us back to witness the return of our comrades.

They were both of them in a state that beggars description. Their knees
and ankles were dreadfully swollen and their limbs so painful that as
soon as they arrived in the camp they sunk under their efforts, but they
met us with a smiling countenance and expressed their satisfaction at
having come so seasonably to our relief. They had, as I had foreseen,
found Robert Harris on the plain, which they reached on the evening of
the third day. They had started early the next morning on their return
with such supplies as they thought we might immediately want. Poor
Macnamee had in a great measure recovered, but for some days he was
sullen and silent; the sight of the drays gave him uncommon
satisfaction. Clayton gorged himself; but M'Leay, myself, and Fraser
could not at first relish the meat that was placed before us.

THE INTERIOR. II

+Source.+--Life of Charles Sturt (Mrs. N.G. Sturt), pp. 230-232,
264-267, 279-280

Observations of the migrations of birds convinced Sturt that there
was good land in the interior of New South Wales, and in 1844 he
set out to find it. His expedition failed because the season was
exceptionally dry, and he was obliged to turn back before he had
accomplished his object.

"If a line be drawn from Lat. 29 deg. 30' and Long. 140 deg. N.W., and another
from Mount Arden due north, they will meet a little to the northward of
the tropic, and there I will be bound to say a fine country will be
discovered." On what date Sturt pledges himself to the discovery of this
fine country is not stated, but when later regretting his failure to
reach the tropic and to set at rest his hypothesis of the better country
to be found there, he briefly tells his reason for the supposition.

"Birds observed east of the Darling in the summer of 1828 in about lat.
29 deg. 30' S. and long. 144 deg. had invariably migrated to the W.N.W.
Cockatoos and parrots, known while in the colony to frequent the richest
and best-watered valleys of the higher lands, would pass in countless
flights to that point of the compass. In South Australia, in lat. 35 deg.
and long. 138 deg., I had also observed that several birds of the same kind
annually visited that Province from the north. I