o to the north-east, in order
again to turn the marsh, but with the expectation that the angle formed
by the junction of the Castlereagh with the Macquarie would arrest its
progress, as the last was fast approaching the former.

I myself determined to cross the river, and to skirt the marshes on the
left, and in case they turned off to the north east, as they appeared
to do, it was my intention to pursue a N.W. course into the interior,
to learn the nature of it. With these views I left the camp on the 31st
of December, and did not return until the 5th of January. Having found
early in my journey, from the change of soil and of timber, that I was
leaving the neighbourhood of the Macquarie, I followed a N.W. course,
from a more northerly one, and struck at once across the country, under
an impression that Mr. Hume would have made the river again long before
my return. I found, after travelling between twenty and thirty miles,
the country began to rise; and at the end of my journey, I made a hill
of considerable elevation, from the summit of which I had a view of
other high lands; one to the S.W. being a very fine mountain. As I had
not found any water excepting in two creeks, which I had left far
behind me, and as I had got on a soil which appeared incapable of
holding it, I made this the termination of my journey, having exceeded
100 miles in distance from the camp, on my return to which I found Mr.
Hume still absent. When he joined, he stated to me, that not making the
Castlereagh as soon as he expected, he had bent down westerly for the
Macquarie, and that he ended his journey at some gentle hills he had
made; so that it appeared we must either have crossed each other's line
of route, or that they were very near, and that want of length must
alone have prevented them from crossing; but as such all assumption led
to the conclusion that the Macquarie no longer existed, I determined to
pursue a middle course round the swamps, to ascertain the point; as in
case the river had ended, a westerly course was the one which my
instructions directed me to pursue.

In the immediate neighbourhood of the marshes we were obliged to sink
wells for water, and it was thus early that we began to feel the want
of a regular supply.

Having made a creek about four miles from our position by cutting
through the reeds where there was a narrow space, we pursued a westerly
course over a plain, having every appearance of frequent inundation,