e country, therefore, through which the
Macquarie would have to flow during the remainder of its course of 1700
miles, in order to gain the N.W. coast, would not be a gradually
inclined plain, but for the most part a dead level, and the fact of its
failure is a sufficient proof in itself how short the course of a river
so circumstanced must necessarily be.

MR. OXLEY'S OPINIONS.

Having conversed frequently with Mr. Oxley on the subject of his
expeditions, I went into the interior prepossessed in favour of his
opinions, nor do I think he could have drawn any other conclusion than
that which he did, from his experience of the terminations of the
rivers whose courses he explored. Had Mr. Oxley advanced forty, or even
thirty miles, farther than he did, to the westward of Mount Harris;
nay, had he proceeded eight miles in the above direction beyond the
actual spot from which he turned back, he would have formed other and
very different opinions of the probable character of the distant
interior. But I am aware that Mr. Oxley performed all that enterprise,
and perseverance, and talent could have performed, and that it would
have been impracticable in him to have attempted to force its marshes
in the state in which he found them. It was from his want of knowledge
of their nature and extent, that he inferred the swampy and
inhospitable character of the more remote country, a state in which
subsequent investigation has found it not to be. The marsh of the
Macquarie is nothing more than an ordinary marsh or swamp in another
country. However large a space it covers, it is no more than a
concavity or basin for the reception of the waters of the river itself,
nor has it any influence whatever on the country to the westward of it,
in respect to inundation; the general features of the latter being a
regular alternation of plain and brush. These facts are in themselves
sufficient to give a fresh interest to the interior of the Australian
continent, and to increase its importance.

CAPT. KING'S OPINIONS.

With respect to that part of its coast at which the rivers falling from
the eastern mountains, discharge themselves, it is a question of very
great doubt. It seems that Capt. King, in consequence of some
peculiarities in the currents at its N.W. angle, supports Mr.
Cunningham's opinion as to their probable discharge in that quarter.
But I fear the internal structure of the continent is so low, as to
preclude the hopes of any river