eeding about a
mile, another lagoon lay before us, which was full of water and indeed
terminated in the river. We avoided it by turning to the right and
gaining the higher ground above the level of floods. We continued along
this upper land, thus crossing two small plains; but soon after, being
apprehensive of going too far from the river, we again entered the open
forest of yarra trees which marked so distinctly its immediate margin. At
3 1/2 miles we passed a bend of the river, full of dead trees, the banks
being quite perpendicular and loose. After reaching another bend three
miles further we noticed two lagoons, apparently the remains of an
ancient channel of the river; and at ten miles we came upon a creek as
capacious as the Lachlan and full of large ponds of water. Mr. Stapylton
examined this creek some way up and he found that it came from the
north-east; and on arriving at a favourable place I crossed with the
party and encamped, the day having been very rainy and cold. We soon
discovered that this channel was only a branch of one from the north and,
the latter being very deep, I determined to halt next day, that its
course might be explored while the men made a fit passage across it for
the carts.

May 20.

This morning the weather appeared beautifully serene; and the barometer
had risen higher than I had ever seen it on this side of the mountains.
Mr. Stapylton, who left the camp in the morning, returned about sunset
after exploring the creek through a very tortuous course, more or less to
the northward of west. He had also ascertained that it supplied a small
lake about eight miles to the westward of our camp, whence he had
perceived its course bending again towards the river, of which he in fact
considered it only a branch: and I therefore concluded that the ponds of
water so abundant in it were but the remains of a flood in the
Murrumbidgee.

May 21.

A good passageway having been made, we crossed the watercourse and
proceeded towards Lake Stapylton as I understood that there we might
easily recross. I was informed by Burnett that when the journey commenced
this morning the gins in the bush had not responded to Piper's call until
after such a search as convinced him that both intended to leave the
party. He said that in such cases the law of the aborigines was that the
two first attempts of a wife to leave her husband might be punished by a
beating, but that for the third offence he might put her to d