h 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 reaching from one extremity of it to the other. A variety of
local circumstances, as the contraction of a channel, a shoal sea, or
numerous islands, influence currents generally, but more especially round
so extensive a continent as that of which we are treating; nor does it
strike me that any observations made by Capt. King during his survey, can
be held to bear any connection with the eastern ranges, or their wes