3.

We proceeded nearly west according to the suggestion of our female guide.
We crossed, at a few miles from Combedyega, my track in the afternoon of
April 23rd; and soon after we entered on plains similar to those which we
had traversed that day:

The morn was wasted in the pathless grass,
And long and lonesome was the wild to pass.

REACH THE UNITED CHANNEL OF THE LACHLAN.

We saw however the river-line of trees on our left, and late in the day
we approached it. Here I recognised the Lachlan again united in a single
channel, which looked as capacious as it was above, the only difference
being that the yarra trees seemed low and of stunted growth. A singular
appearance on the bushes which grew on the immediate bank attracted my
attention. A paper-like substance hung over them in the manner in which
linen is sometimes thrown over a hedge; but on examination it appeared to
be the dried scum of stagnant water. This--marks of water on the trees
and the less water-worn character of the banks which were of even slope
and grassy--seemed to show that the current of the river during floods
here loses its force, and that the water is consequently slower in
subsiding than higher up the stream.

NO WATER.

The course of the river was very tortuous, but still I in vain traced the
channel for water, even in the sharpest of its turnings, until long after
it was quite dark. We encamped at length near a small muddy hole
discovered with the assistance of our female guide, after having
travelled nineteen miles. I found the latitude of this camp to be 33
degrees 52 minutes 59 seconds, which was so near that of Mr. Oxley's
lowest point according to his book that I concluded we must be close to
it. Fortunately we found some natives at this waterhole who told us that
a long while ago white men had been encamped on the opposite side of the
Kalare, and that the place where they had marked a tree was not very far
distant, but that it had recently been burnt down. We saw today for the
first time on the Kalare the red-top cockatoo (Plyctolophus leadbeateri).

NATIVES' ACCOUNT OF THE RIVERS LOWER DOWN.

May 4.

This morning it rained and, considering the long journey of yesterday, I
gave the cattle rest. Here the natives again told us of Oolawambiloa,
near a great river coming from the north, and only five days' journey
from where we should make the Murrumbidgee. They also told us that the
latter river was joined by another coming from