ed on to the Macquarie country,
which made a pleasant and welcome contrast with the detested Lachlan.

It may be thought that too much stress has been laid upon Oxley's opinion
of the Lachlan, but it was this pessimistic report that dominated the
public mind for many years in its speculations as to the character of the
interior.

To Oxley himself, the first glimpse of the Macquarie came like a ray of
sunshine on his harassed feelings. Was he not to reap some reward for his
heroic efforts along the Lachlan, to enjoy the realisation of some of his
ambition as geographical discoverer? The Macquarie seemed a favourable
subject for the exercise of his talents. Would it not lead him westward
to the conquest of that mysterious inland country which had hitherto
guarded its secrets with an invincible obstinacy? Poor Oxley, who can
help rejoicing with him in his short-lived joy? Without knowing it, he
was the first of a long line of brave spirits who were doomed to lose
health and life in carving their way into the heart of Australia.

As they returned homeward up the bank of the Macquarie, the river seemed
to him to glitter with the bright promise of a crown of success. For
almost the first time the entry in his journal has a cheery ring of
hope:--

"Nothing can afford a stronger contrast than the two rivers -- Lachlan
and Macquarie -- different in their habits, their appearance, and the
source from which they derive their waters, but, above all, differing in
the country bordering on them; the one constantly receiving great
accession of water from four streams, and as liberally rendering fertile
a great extent of country, whilst the other, from its source to its
termination is constantly diffusing and diminishing the water it
originally receives over low and barren deserts, creating only wet flats
and uninhabitable morasses, and during its protracted and sinuous course
is never indebted to a single tributary stream."

3.3. THE LIVERPOOL PLAINS.

The disappointment occasioned by Oxley's return to Bathurst and his
failure to trace the course of the Lachlan was in part atoned for by the
high opinion he had formed of the Macquarie. A second expedition was
planned, and the command again offered to the Surveyor-General.

Evans was again second, and Dr. Harris, a very able man, accompanied the
party as a volunteer. Charles Fraser was botanist, but Allan Cunningham
did not go. The expedition was on a slightly larger scale, there