troduction to this work, that the
general impression on the minds of those best qualified to judge was,
that the western streams discharged themselves into a central shoal
sea. Mr. Oxley thus expresses himself on the subject:--

"July 3rd. Towards morning the storm abated, and at day-light, we
proceeded on our voyage. The main bed of the river was much contracted,
but very deep; the waters spreading to the depth of a foot or eighteen
inches over the banks, but all running on the same point of bearing. We
met with considerable interruptions from fallen timber, which in places
nearly choked up the channel. After going about twenty miles, we lost
the land and trees; the channel of the river, which lay through reeds,
and was from one to three feet deep, ran northerly.--This continued for
three or four miles farther, when, although there had been no previous
change in the breadth, depth, or rapidity of the stream for several
miles, and I was sanguine in my expectations of soon entering the
long-sought-for Australian sea, it all at once eluded our farther
pursuit, by spreading on every point from N.W. to N.E. among the ocean
of reeds which surrounded us, still running with the same rapidity as
before. There was no channel whatever among those reeds, and the depth
varied from three to five feet. This astonishing change (for I cannot
call it a termination of the river) of course left me no alternative
but to endeavour to return to some spot on which we could effect a
landing before dark. I estimated, that during the day, we had gone
about twenty-four miles, on nearly the same point of bearing as
yesterday. To assert, positively, that we were on the margin of the
lake, or sea, into which this great body of water is discharged, might
reasonably be deemed a conclusion, which has nothing but conjecture for
its basis. But if an opinion may be permitted to be hazarded from
actual appearances, mine is decidedly in favour of our being in the
immediate vicinity of an inland sea, or lake, most probably a shoal
one, and gradually filling up by numerous depositions from the high
lands, left by the waters which flow into it. It is most singular, that
the high lands on this continent seem to be confined to the sea-coast,
and not to extend to any distance from it."

MR. CUNNINGHAM'S REMARKS.

In a work published at Sydney, containing an account of Mr. Allan
Cunningham's journey towards Moreton Bay, in 1828, the following
remarks occur, f