on that side the downs. Towards that point I therefore shaped my course,
and there found the river--no longer a chain of dry ponds in brigalow
scrub, but a channel shaded by lofty yarra trees, with open grassy banks,
and containing long reaches full of water. White cockatoos shrieked above
us; ducks floated, or flew about, and columns of smoke began to ascend
from the woods before us. This was now, indeed, a river, and I lost no
time in following it downwards. The direction was west; then north-west,
tolerably straight. Water was abundant in its bed; the breadth was
considerable, and the channel was well-marked by bold lofty banks. I
remarked the salt-bush of the Bogan plains, growing here, on sand-islands
of this river. The grass surpassed any I had ever seen in the colony in
quality and abundance. The slow flying pelican appeared over our heads,
and we came to a long broad reach covered with ducks, where the channel
had all the appearance of a river of the first magnitude. The old mussle
shells (UNIO) lay in heaps, like cart-loads, all along the banks, but
still we saw none of the natives. Flames, however, arose from the woods
beyond the opposite bank, at once in many directions, as if by magic, as
we advanced. At 3 P.M. Fahrenheit's thermometer in the shade stood at
90 deg.. Towards evening, we saw part of the bed dry, and found it
continuously so, as night came on. The sun had set, while I still
anxiously explored the dry recesses of the channel in search of water,
without much hopes of success, when a wild yell arose from the woods back
from the channel, which assured us that water was near. Towards that
quarter we turned, and Yuranigh soon found a fine pond in a small ana-
branch, upon which we immediately halted, and took up our abode there for
the night. It may seem strange that so small a number could act thus
unmolested by the native tribes, but our safety consisted chiefly in the
rapidity of our movements, and their terror of strangers wholly unknown,
perhaps unheard of, arriving on the backs of huge animals, or centaurs
whose tramp they had only heard at nightfall. Like Burns's "Auld Nick,"

----"rustling through the boortrees comin' Wi' eerie sought!"

our passage was too rapid to admit of any design for attack or annoyance
being concocted, much less, carried into effect; next night we hoped to
sleep thirty miles off, where our coming would be equally unexpected by
natives. Latitude, 24 deg. 34' 30" S.

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