places where we had visited its
banks much higher up the stream. The meandering Gwydir terminated in this
river a little way below the fall; and I could not perceive any
difference in the appearance of the larger channel below that junction.*

(*Footnote. The situation of this junction afforded a curious
illustration of the principle which guided me in choosing my route from
the great Namoi Lagoon on the 14th of January. Having been then between
two rivers (at A) I chose the bearing of 20 degrees west of north, as
given by the bearing of the high land (B) in the opposite direction, and
this junction (C) was now found to be exactly in that line. That high
land was a projecting point of a range; the course of rivers is
conformable to the angles of such ranges, and therefore the rivers on
each side of me (at A) were not so likely to come in my way in the
direction of AC, as in any other direction I could have chosen. The
chance of finding firm ground in that direction was also better as the
rivers were only likely to continue separate by the protrusion of some
remote offset of ground between them, from the salient feature B.)

Thus terminated our excursion to explore this last-discovered stream; for
there was no necessity for extending it further, as I could not suppose
that it was any other than the Darling. Into this river we had traced the
Gwydir; the junction of the Namoi, also, could not be far distant; and
even that of the Castlereagh was only about 70 miles to the south-west,
which was the direction of the supposed general course of the Darling. It
was probable that the streams we had now explored formed the chief
sources of that river, and that we had connected its channel thus at an
intermediate point, with the basin of all those rivers which had been
crossed by Mr. Cunningham near the coast range above. It therefore
remained for me only to return to the party, which had probably, by that
time, finished the punt; and there to cross the river, in order to
ascertain, by extending our journey, the nature of the country forming
the northern or north-western side of this extensive basin.

RETURN TOWARDS THE CAMP.

Returning towards the camp with these intentions we halted to pass the
night by some ponds near the river, having observed the smoke of the
natives' fires in the immediate vicinity. At this place many trees bore
recent marks of their stone tomahawks, and the soft banks of the river
were much imprinted with