stant. Some of the bullocks had strayed, and he had consequently been
prevented from starting so early as he would otherwise have done. The
animals had, however, been recovered before we reached the party, and
were yoked up; we pushed on therefore to a distance of nine miles,
cutting across from angle to angle of the river, but ultimately turned
into one of the flats and encamped for the night. We passed during the
day through some low bushes of cypresses and other stunted shrubs, but
they were not so thick as to impede our heavy drays, by the weight of
which every tree they came in contact with was brought to the ground. A
meridian altitude of Vega placed us in lat. 34 degrees 4 minutes 20
seconds S., by which it appeared that we had made four miles of southing,
the Great Bend being in lat. 34 degrees. Kenny and Tampawang had joined
the party before we overtook it, and Flood arrived in the course of the
afternoon. The cattle had an abundance of feed round our tents, and near
a lagoon at the upper end of the flat. The thermometer stood at 40
degrees at 7 p.m., with the wind at west.

On the morning of the 26th we availed ourselves of the first favourable
point to ascend from the river flats to the higher ground, since it
prevented our following the windings of the river and shortened our day's
journey. In doing this we sometimes travelled at a considerable distance
from the Murray--the surface of the country was undulating and sandy,
with clumps of stunted cypress trees, and eucalyptus dumosa scattered
over it. Low bushes of rhagodia, at great distances apart, were growing
on the more open ground; the soil, consisting of a red clay and sand,
only superficially covering the fossil formation beneath it. At 11 a.m.
we entered a dense brush of cypress and eucalypti growing in pure sand.
Fortunately for us the overlanders had cut a passage through it, so that
we had a clear road before us, but the drays sunk deep into the loose
sand in which these trees were growing, and the bullocks had a constant
strain on the yoke for six miles. We then broke into more open ground,
and ultimately reached the river in sufficient time to arrange the camp
before sunset, although we had 2 1/2 miles to travel on a S.W. course
before we found a convenient place to stop at. Our course during the day
having been S.S.E., we had thus been obliged to turn back upon it, but
this was owing to the direction the river here takes and was unavoidable.
At