h checks its further progress westerly. I proceeded round
the S.W. angle, and then, taking a northerly course, got down to the
bottom of the first great marsh, thus completing the circuit of them. I
did not return to the camp until after 10 p.m., having crossed the river
at day-light, nor did we procure any water from the time we left the
stream to the moment of our recrossing it.

WALLIS'S PONDS.

Having completed our various arrangements, and closed our letters, we
struck our tents on the morning of the 7th March; we remained, however, to
witness the departure of Riley's party for Wellington Valley, and then
left the Macquarie on an E.N.E. course for Wallis's Ponds, and made them
at about 14 miles. They undoubtedly empty themselves into the marshes, and
are a continuation of that chain of ponds on which I left the party in
Mr. Hume's charge. About a mile from Mount Harris, we passed a small dry
creek, that evidently lays the country under water in the wet seasons.
There was a blue-gum flat to the eastward of it, which we crossed, and
then entered a brush of acacia pendula and box. The soil upon the plain
was an alluvial deposit; that in the brushes was sandy. From the extremity
of the plain, Mount Harris bore, by compass, S.W. by W.; Mount Foster due
west. The scrub through which we were penetrating, at length became so
dense, that we found it impossible to travel in a direct line through it,
and frequent ridges of cypresses growing closely together, turned us
repeatedly from our course. The country at length became clearer, and we
travelled over open forest of box, casuarina, and cypresses, on a sandy
soil; the first predominating. For about two miles before we made the
creek, the country was not heavily timbered, the acacia pendula
succeeding the larger trees. The ground had a good covering of grass upon
it, and there were few of the salsolaceous plants, so abundant on the
western plains, to be found. The rough-gum abounded near the creek, with a
small tree bearing a hard round nut, and we had the luxury of plenty of
water.

We remained stationary on the 8th, in hopes that Riley would have met the
soldier who had been sent back to Wellington Valley, and that he would
have forwarded any letters to us, of which he might have been the bearer.
The day, however, passed over without realizing our expectations; and we
started once more for the interior, and cut ourselves off from all
communication with society.

MORRIS