ts banks retaining a height far above the usual
level of the stream. A traveller who had never before descended into the
interior of New Holland, would have spurned the idea of such a river
terminating in marshes; but with the experience of the former journey,
strong as hope was within my breast, I still feared it might lose itself
in the vast flat upon which we could scarcely be said to have yet entered.
The country was indeed taking up more and more every day the features of
the N.W. interior. Cypresses were observed upon the minor ridges, and the
soil near the river, although still rich, and certainly more extensive
than above, was occasionally mixed with sand, and scattered over with the
claws of crayfish and shells, indicating its greater liability to be
flooded; nor indeed could I entertain a doubt that the river had laid a
great part of the levels around us under water long after it found that
channel in which nature intended ultimately to confine it. We killed
another fine red kangaroo in the early part of the day, in galloping after
which I got a heavy fall.

The two blacks who had been with us so long, and who had not only exerted
themselves to assist us, but had contributed in no small degree to our
amusement, though they had from M'Leay's liberality, tasted all the
dainties with which we had provided ourselves, from sugar to concentrated
cayenne, intimated that they could no longer accompany the party. They had
probably got to the extremity of their beat, and dared not venture any
further. They left us with evident regret, receiving, on their departure,
several valuable presents, in the shape of tomahawks &c. The last thing
they did was to point out the way to us, and to promise to join us on our
return, although they evidently little anticipated ever seeing us again.

In pursuing our journey, we entered a forest, consisting of box-trees,
casuarinae, and cypresses, on a light sandy soil, in which both horses and
bullocks sunk so deep that their labour was greatly increased, more
especially as the weather had become much warmer. At noon I altered my
course from N.W. by W. to W.N.W., and reached the Morumbidgee at 3 in the
afternoon. The flats bordering it were extensive and rich, and, being
partially mixed with sand, were more fitted for agricultural purposes than
the stiffer and purer soil amidst the mountains; but the interior beyond
them was far from being of corresponding quality. We crossed several
plain