ts, and procure amongst them other guides to lead us
further. The night was very hot, and flies and mosquitos did their utmost
to prevent us from sleeping. Thermometer at sunrise, 75 deg.; at noon, 99 deg.;
at 4 P. M., 105 deg.; at 9, 83 deg.; ditto with wet bulb, 75 deg..
10TH MARCH.--Anxious for an interview with some of the natives, I
continued the pursuit of the Narran's course about five miles higher, but
with no better success. I then turned, after obtaining from our guide,
through Youranigh, what information could be gathered thus, as to the
river's further course, the best bank for the passage of our drays, etc.
We were still, he said, a long way from the "Culgoa." There was no
perceptible change in the aspect of the "Narran" as far as we had
examined it, except that where we turned, there were flood-marks, and the
dead logs and river wreck, deposited on the upper side of trees and
banks, showing a current and high floods. The last of these, our guide
said, had occurred about five moons before. In riding back to the camp we
kept the castern bank, that the track might be available for our drays.
This ride along a river where we could, when we pleased, either water our
horses, or take a drink ourselves, was quite new and delightful to us,
under a temperature of 105 deg. in the shade. Our guide, aged apparently
about fifty, walked frequently into the river, while in a state of
perspiration; dipped quite under water, or drank a little with his lip on
the level of its surface, and then walked on again. He was at last very
tired, however, and pointed to the large muscles of the RECTUS FEMORIS as
if they pained him. We found at the camp, on our return, five of the
drays that had come up, the other three being still behind, and requiring
double teams of exhausted cattle to bring them forward. In the vicinity
of our camp we found the TRICHINIUM ALOPECUROIDEUM, with heads of flowers
nearly five inches long; an eucalyptus near E. PULVERULENTA, but having
more slender peduncles; a sort of Iron-bark. We found also a tall
glaucous new HALORAGIS [*], and a curious new shaggy KOCHIA was
intermingled with the grass.[**] Thermometer at sunrise, 77 deg.; at noon,
102 deg.; at 4, 107 deg.; at 9, 76 deg.;--with wet bulb, 71 deg..
[* H. GLAUCA (Lindl. MSS.); annua, stricta, glaberrima, glauca, foliis
oppositis lineari-oblongis obtusis petiolatis grosse serratis, racemis
apice aphyllis, fructu globoso tuberculato laevi.]
[** K. VI
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