Y SUBJECT TO INUNDATION.

We started on the 23rd, with the same boundlessness of plain on either
side of us; but in the course of the morning a change took place, both
in soil and productions; and from the red sandy loam, and salsolaceous
plants, amidst which we had been toiling, we got upon a light tenacious
and blistered soil, evidently subject to frequent overflow, and fields
of polygonum junceum, amidst which, both the crested pigeon and the
black quail were numerous. The drays and animals sank so deep in this,
that we were obliged to make for the river, and keep upon its immediate
banks. Still, with all the appearance of far-spread inundation, it
continued undiminished in size, and apparently in the strength of its
current. Its channel was deeper than near the mountains, but its
breadth was about the same.

On the 24th, we were again entangled amidst fields of polygonum,
through which we laboured until after eleven, when we gained a firmer
soil. Some cypresses appeared upon our right, in a dark line, and I
indulged hopes that a change was about to take place in the nature of
the country. We soon, however, got on a light rotten earth, and were
again obliged to make for the river, with the teams completely
exhausted. We had not travelled many miles from our last camp, yet it
struck me, that the river had fallen off in appearance. I examined it
with feelings of intense anxiety, certain, as I was, that the flooded
spaces, over which we had been travelling would, sooner or later, be
succeeded by a country overgrown with reeds. The river evidently
overflowed its banks, on both sides, for many miles, nor had I a doubt
that, at some periods, the space northward, between it and the Lachlan,
presented the appearance of one vast sea. The flats of polygonum
stretched away to the N.W. to an amazing distance, as well as in a
southerly direction, and the very nature of the soil bore testimony to
its flooded origin. But the most unaccountable circumstance to me was,
that it should be entirely destitute of vegetation, with the exception
of the gloomy and leafless bramble I have noticed.

M'Leay, who was always indefatigable in his pursuit after subjects of
natural history, shot a cockatoo, of a new species, hereabouts, having
a singularly shaped upper mandible. It was white, with scarlet down
under the neck feathers, smaller than the common cockatoo, and
remarkable for other peculiarities.

INTERCOURSE WITH NATIVES; THE COLARE