e to a river. We had not proceeded very far
down its banks, on the 18th, when we crossed a broad footpath leading
to it from the interior. I turned my horse to the left, and struck upon
a long sheet of water, from which I startled a number of pelicans. It
was evident that the natives had recently been in the neighbourhood,
but we thought it probable they might have been a hunting party, who
had returned again to the plains. The whole track we passed over during
the day was miserably poor and bare of vegetation, nor did the
appearance of the country to the N.E. indicate any improvement. We lost
the traces of the natives immediately after crossing their path or
beat, and again found the bed of the river dry, after we had passed the
sheet of water to which it led. The soil was so rotten and yielding,
that the team knocked up early; indeed, it was a matter of surprise to
me that they should not have failed before. The river made somewhat to
the westward with little promise of improvement. The wretched
appearance of the country as we penetrated into it, damped our spirits;
we pressed on, however, with difficulty, over ground that was totally
destitute of vegetation. Instead of lofty timber and a living stream,
we wandered along the banks of an insignificant watercourse, and under
trees of stunted size and scanty foliage. We stopped on the 20th at the
angle of a creek, in which there was some dry grass, in consequence of
the animals being almost in a starving state, but even here they had
but little to eat.

A violent thunder-storm passed over us in the afternoon, but it made no
change in the temperature of the air. The weather, although it had been
hot and sultry, had fallen far short of the intense heat we experienced
in crossing the marshes of the Macquarie, when it was such as to melt
the sugar in the canisters, and to destroy all our dogs; and our nights
were now become agreeably cool.

A PARTY OF NATIVES.

We still, however, continued to travel over a dead level, nor was a
height or break visible from the loftiest trees we ascended. A little
before we stopped at the creek, we surprised a party of natives; old
men, women, and children. They were preparing dinners of fish in much
larger quantities than they could have devoured--probably for a part of
the tribe that were absent; but the moment they saw us they fled, and
left every thing at our mercy. On examining the fish, we found them
totally different from any in the