ER.

Here however we found a broad and extensive lagoon nearly level with its
banks and covered with ducks. It had the winding character and uniformity
of width of a river, but no current. I thought this reach might also
contain some surplus water of the Namoi, which could not be far distant
for we had now reached those low levels to which we had previously traced
the course of that river. We travelled along the bank of this fine piece
of water for two miles, and found its breadth to be very uniform. An arm
trending northward then lay in our way. The country was full of holes and
deep rents or cracks, but the soil was loose, and bare as a new-ploughed
field. I therefore withdrew the carts to where we first came on the
lagoon; not only for the sake of grass, but that we might continue our
route over the firmer ground which appeared to the eastward.

POSITION OF THE PARTY. THE COMMON COURSE OF THE RIVER AND THE SITUATION
OF THE RANGE CONSIDERED.

I had now on my map the Nundewar range with the courses of the Namoi on
one side, and the Gwydir on the other. I was between these two rivers,
and at no great distance from either; Mount Riddell, the nearest point of
the range, bore 21 1/2 degrees South of East, being distant 42 miles. The
opposite bearing or 20 degrees North of West might therefore be
considered to express the common direction of these waters. In a country
so liable to inundation as the district between these rivers appeared to
be, it was a primary object with us to travel along the highest or driest
part, and we could only look for this advantage in the above direction,
or parallel to and midway between the rivers. We could in this manner
trace out their junction with more certainty, and so terminate thus far
the survey of both by the determination of a point so important in
geography. The soil of these level open tracts consisted of a rich,
dark-coloured clay. The lagoon was marked by a row of stunted trees which
grew along its edge on each side, so that the line could be distinguished
from a great distance eastward, and appeared to be connected with the
ponds of Gorolei.

NONDESCRIPT TREE AND FRUIT.

Among the trees growing along the margin of this lagoon were several
which were new to me; particularly one which bore clusters of a fruit
resembling a small russet apple and about an inch in diameter. The skin
was rough, the pulp of a rich crimson colour not unlike that of the
prickly-pear, and it had an ag