ntage
from its proximity to water.

EXTREME HEAT OF THE WEATHER.

We had started at early dawn; and the heat had become intolerable long
ere the sun had gained the meridian. It was rendered still more
oppressive from the want of air in the dense bushes through which we
occasionally moved. At 2 p.m. the thermometer stood at 129 degrees of
Fahrenheit, in the shade; and at 149 degrees in the sun; the difference
being exactly 20 degrees. It is not to be wondered at that the cattle
suffered, although the journey was so short. The sun's rays were too
powerful even for the natives, who kept as much as possible in the
shade. In the evening, when the atmosphere was somewhat cooler, we
launched the boat upon the lake, in order to get some wild fowl and
fish; but although we were tolerably successful with our guns, we did
not take anything with our hooks.

The natives had, in the course of the afternoon, been joined by the
rest of the tribe, and they now numbered about three and twenty. They
were rather distant in their manner, and gazed with apparent
astonishment at the scene that was passing before them.

If there had been other proof wanting, of the lamentably parched and
exhausted state of the interior, we had on this occasion ample evidence
of it, and of the fearful severity of the drought under which the
country was suffering. As soon as the sun dipped under the horizon,
hundreds of birds came crowding to the border of the lake, to quench
the thirst they had been unable to allay in the forest. Some were
gasping, others almost too weak to avoid us, and all were indifferent
to the reports of our guns.

CATARACT OF THE MACQUARIE.

On leaving the Buddah, eleven only of the natives accompanied us. We
reached the river again about noon, on a north-half-east course, where
it had a rocky bed, and continued to journey along it, until we reached
the cataract at which we halted. We travelled over soil generally
inferior to that which we had seen on the preceding day, but rich in
many places. The same kind of timber was observed, but the acacia
pendula was more prevalent than any other, although near the river the
flooded gum and Australian apple-tree were of beautiful growth.

It had appeared to me that the waters of the Macquarie had been
diminishing in volume since our departure from Wellington Valley, and I
had a favourable opportunity of judging as to the correctness of this
conclusion at the cataract, where its channel, a