.m. the thermometer stood at 129 degrees of Fahrenheit, in
the shade; and at 149 degrees in the sun; the difference being exactly 20
degrees. It is not to be wondered at that the cattle suffered, although
the journey was so short. The sun's rays were too powerful even for the
natives, who kept as much as possible in the shade. In the evening, when
the atmosphere was somewhat cooler, we launched the boat upon the lake,
in order to get some wild fowl and fish; but although we were tolerably
successful with our guns, we did not take anything with our hooks.

The natives had, in the course of the afternoon, been joined by the rest
of the tribe, and they now numbered about three and twenty. They were
rather distant in their manner, and gazed with apparent astonishment at
the scene that was passing before them.

If there had been other proof wanting, of the lamentably parched and
exhausted state of the interior, we had on this occasion ample evidence of
it, and of the fearful severity of the drought under which the country was
suffering. As soon as the sun dipped under the horizon, hundreds of birds
came crowding to the border of the lake, to quench the thirst they had
been unable to allay in the forest. Some were gasping, others almost too
weak to avoid us, and all were indifferent to the reports of our guns.

CATARACT OF THE MACQUARIE.

On leaving the Buddah, eleven only of the natives accompanied us. We
reached the river again about noon, on a north-half-east course, where it
had a rocky bed, and continued to journey along it, until we reached the
cataract at which we halted. We travelled over soil generally inferior to
that which we had seen on the preceding day, but rich in many places. The
same kind of timber was observed, but the acacia pendula was more
prevalent than any other, although near the river the flooded gum and
Australian apple-tree were of beautiful growth.

It had appeared to me that the waters of the Macquarie had been
diminishing in volume since our departure from Wellington Valley, and I
had a favourable opportunity of judging as to the correctness of this
conclusion at the cataract, where its channel, at all times much
contracted, was particularly so on the present occasion. So little force
was there in the current, that I began to entertain doubts how long it
would continue, more especially when I reflected on the level character of
the country we had entered, and the fact of the Macquarie not rece