en on
their banks had to carry a supply of water, so uncertain was it that we
should meet with any at the termination of our day's journey, and that
what we did find would be fit to drink. Our course led us over plains
immediately bordering the lower lands of the Macquarie, alternating
with swamp oak, acacia pendula, pine, box, eucalyptus, and many other
trees of minor growth, the soil being inclined to a red loam, while the
plains were generally covered with a black scrub, though in some places
they had good grass upon them. We crossed two creeks before we made the
hills Mr. Hume had ascended, and which he called New Year's Range.
Around these hills the country appeared better--they are gentle,
picturesque elevations, and are for the most part, covered with
verdure, and have, I fancy, a whinstone base, the rock of which they
are composed being of various substances. I place New Year's Range in
lat. 30 degrees 21 minutes, long. 146 degrees 3 minutes 30 seconds. Our
course next lying north-west along a creek, led us to within twenty
miles of the hill that had terminated my excursion, and as I hoped that
a more leisurely survey of the country from its summit would open
something favourable to our view, I struck over for it, though
eventually obliged to return. From it Mr. Hume and I rode to the S.W.
mountain, a distance of about forty miles, without crossing a brook or
a creek, our way leading through dense acacia brushes, and for the most
part over a desert. We saw high lands from this mountain, which exceeds
1,300 feet in elevation, and is of sandstone formation, and thickly
covered with stunted pine, in eight different points--the bearings of
which are as follows:--

Oxley's Table Land, N. 40 E., distant 40 miles.
Kengall Hill, due E. very distant.
Conical Hill, S. 60 E.
Highland, S.E. distance 30 miles.
Highland, S. 30 E. distance 25 miles.
Long Range, S. 16 E. distance 60 miles.
Long Range, S. 72 W. distance 60 miles.
Distant Range, S. 25 W. supposed.

It was in vain, however, that we looked for water. The country to the
north-west, was low and unbroken, and alternated with wood and plain.

The country from New Year's Range to the hill I had made, and which I
called Oxley's Table Land, had been very fair, with good soil in many
places, but with a total want of water, except in the creeks, wherein
the supply was both bad and uncertain; on our second day's journey from
the former, we came to the c