ed over a country very similar to that by which we had
approached it, one well adapted for grazing, but intersected by
numerous creeks, at two of which we found natives, some of whom joined
our party. Our old friend left us in quest of some blacks, who, as he
informed Hopkinson, had seen the tracks of our horses on the Darling. I
was truly puzzled at such a statement, which was, however, further
corroborated by the circumstance of one of the natives having a
tire-nail affixed to a spear, which he said was picked up, by the man
who gave it to him, on one of our encampments. I could not think it
likely that this story was true, and rather imagined they must have
picked up the nail near the located districts, and I was anxious to
have the point cleared up. When we halted we had a large assemblage of
natives with us, amounting in all to twenty-seven, but I awaited in
vain the return of the old man. The night passed away without our
seeing him, nor did he again join us.

We started in the morning with our new acquaintances, and kept on a
south-westerly course during the day, over an excellent grazing, and,
in many places, an agricultural country, still intersected by creeks,
that were too deep for the water to have dried in them. The country
more remote from the river, however, began to assume more and more the
character and appearance of the northern interior. I rode into several
plains, the soil of which was either a red sandy loam, bare of
vegetation, or a rotten and blistered earth, producing nothing but
rhagodiae, salsolae, and misembrianthemum.

We fell in with another tribe of blacks during the journey, to whom we
were literally consigned by those who had been previously with us, and
who now turned back, while our new friends took the lead of the drays.
They were two fine young men, but had very ugly wives, and were for a
long time extremely diffident. I found that I could obtain but little
information through my black boy,--whether from his not understanding
me, or because he was too cunning, is uncertain. One of these young
men, however, clearly stated that he had seen the tracks of bullocks
and horses, a long time ago, to the N.N.W. in the direction of some
detached hills, that were visible from 20 to 25 miles distant. He
remembered them, he said, as a boy, and added that the white men were
without water. It was, therefore, clear that he alluded to Mr. Oxley's
excursion, northerly from the Lachlan, and I had no do