in timber of any magnitude or apparently of any age, excepting the trees
which grew along the line of the rivers; that the soil of the plains was
sandy, and the productions almost exclusively salsolaceous. Their extreme
depression, indeed their general level, since they were not more than 250
or 300 feet above the level of the sea, together with their general
aspect, instinctively, as it were, led the mind to the conviction that
they had, at a comparatively recent period, been covered by the ocean. On
my return to the Blue Mountains, and on a closer examination of the
streams falling from them into the interior, I observed that at a certain
point, and that too nearly on the same meridian, they lost their
character as rivers, and soon after gaining the level interior,
terminated in marshes of greater or less extent; and I further remarked
that at certain points, and that too where the channels of the rivers
seemed to change, certain trees, as the swamp oak, casuarina, and others
ceased, or were sparingly to be found on the lower country--a fact that
may not be of any great importance in itself, but which it is still as
well to record. The field, however, over which I wandered on this
occasion was too limited to enable me to draw any conclusions applicable
to so large a tract of land as the Australian continent. On this, my
first expedition, I struck the Darling River twice, 1st, as I have stated
in latitude 30 degrees S. and in long. 146 degrees; and seconndly, in
lat. 30 degrees 10 minutes 0 seconds S., and in long. 147 degrees
30 minutes E. From neither of these points was any elevation visible to
the westward of that river, but plains similar to those by which I had
approached it continued beyond the range of vision or telescope from the
highest trees we could ascend; beyond the Darling, therefore, all was
conjecture.

At the close of the year 1829, I was again sent into the interior to
trace its streams and to ascertain the further course of the Darling. I
proceeded on this occasion to the south of Sydney, and intersecting the
Murrumbidgee, a river at that time but little known, but which Mr. Hume
had crossed, in lat. 35 degrees 10 minutes, and long. 147 degrees 28
minutes 30 seconds E., on his journey to the south coast, at a very early
period of discovery, and which thereabouts is a clear, rapid and
beautiful stream. I traced it downwards to the west to lat. 34 degrees 44
minutes, and to long. 143 degrees 5 minutes