from the east-south-east.

THE ARROWSMITH RIVER.

I immediately knew from the appearance of the country that we were near
some large river; and whilst descending into the valley I indulged in
speculations as to the size of that we were about to discover, and as to
whether Providence would grant me once again to drink a draught of cool
river water.

I soon however began to fear that my expectations were to be
disappointed. We had already proceeded more than two miles of the
distance across the valley; and although the soil was rich and good we
had yet seen nothing but dry watercourses, inconsiderable in themselves
yet apparently when united forming a large river. I still however
entertained hopes of finding water, for I saw numerous tracks of natives
about, and the whole of this valley was an extensive warran ground in
which they had that very morning been digging for their favourite root.

At length, just as my patience began to wear out, we ascended, out of a
dry watercourse, a rise rather more elevated than the others we had met
with in crossing the valley; and from the summit of this a curious sight
met our view: beneath us lay the dry bed of a large river, its depth at
this point being between forty and fifty feet, and its breadth upwards of
three hundred yards; it was at times subject to terrific inundations; for
along its banks lay the trunks of immense trees, giants of the forest
which had been washed down from the interior in the season of the floods;
yet nothing now met our craving eyes but a vast sandy channel which
scorched our eyeballs as the rays of the sun were reflected back from its
white glistening bed.

WATER FOUND IN IT BY DIGGING.

I picked out the most shady spot I could for the men to halt at, then
descended into the bed of the river to search, with the native, for
water; and immediately on scraping a hole a few inches deep in the bed of
the river the water came streaming into it, for the sand composing the
bottom of the watercourse was completely saturated, and I afterwards
found that there were large pools of it immediately above and below where
we were.

The wants of the men having been thus supplied I determined, as it was
intensely hot, to halt for an hour or two; we each of us therefore ate a
little doughboy, or piece of damper, and the men then lay down to rest.
As I sat musing alone the first thought that struck me was how
providentially it happened that we had not fallen in with th