ead,
could not be exceeded; roots and stalks being all dead and decayed like
rotten timber.

(*Footnote. Panicum flavidum of Retz.)

SOUTH-WEST WINDS.

Every blade drooped towards the north-east and showed plainly how
prevalent the south-west winds were on these open wastes. In a gloomy day
a wanderer lost upon them might have known his course merely by the
uniform drooping of those blades of grass towards the north-east.

SEARCH FOR THE LACHLAN.

After travelling ten miles south-west without perceiving any indication
of the river I directed our course southward and, after proceeding seven
miles in that direction, we came upon a hollow of Polygonum junceum so
full of wide and deep cracks that our horses were got across with
difficulty. It extended in a south-west direction towards some flooded
box-trees. The country beyond was better wooded, and at eleven miles we
at length approached a creek, and the large trees which enveloped it
looked like those of the river itself; but we saw none of the yarra or
white-trunked trees which always accompanied such waters and, although we
certainly found the channel of a considerable current, it was shallow,
quite dry, and full of Polygonum junceum.

I could hardly consider this a lateral branch of the river as I thought
that I had seen its head in some hollows which I crossed on the plains
the day before. After passing this channel however we descried a long
dark line of river-trees which, as our horses were getting tired, we were
now somewhat anxious to see and, the native perceiving smoke arising from
the woods there, I, at his request, altered my course to that direction
which was 30 degrees East of South.

THIRST OF BARNEY.

None of the party suffered so much apparently from the want of water as
Barney, our native friend. He rode foremost of the men with a tin pot in
his hand, his eyes fixed on remote distance and his mouth open, with the
lower lip projecting, as if to catch rain from the heavens. When we were
within two miles of those trees we found enough of rainwater in a shallow
hole to refresh our horses, but it was surrounded with such tempting
grass that the animals preferred the verdure to it. Barney drank as much
as he wished, and I advised the men to fill their horns, but the horses
soon trod the water into mud, and all expected to find plenty near the
smoke; a hope in which I was by no means sanguine.

CROSS VARIOUS DRY CHANNELS.

The first line of trees w