pecimens.

EXTENSIVE RIDE TO THE WESTWARD.

April 22.

I proceeded westward accompanied by five men and an aboriginal guide, all
mounted on horseback. My object was to obtain, if possible, some
knowledge of the final course of the Lachlan; and secondly to ascertain
how far the hills to the north-west of our camp ranged beyond that very
remarkable feature, resembling a cape or promontory and named Warranary,
which marked the extent of our sight and knowledge at that time. This
point was in a direct line between the camp we then occupied on the
Lachlan and the lowest part of the Darling attained during the former
journey, and we had just fallen back from want of water; a circumstance
likely to compel me to follow the Lachlan downwards, at least if it could
be ascertained thus early that this river could not possibly be the
supposed Darling of Sturt. In case it proved otherwise I thought it not
improbable that, at the end of two days' journey westward, I might fall
in with the Lachlan, and if I could find water in it at such a point
under any circumstances, I considered that a position so much advanced
would be equally favourable, either for reaching the junction of the
Murray or the upper Darling. Should I succeed in reaching the Lachlan at
about sixty miles west of my camp I might be satisfied that it was this
river which Captain Sturt took for the Darling, and then I might seek
that river by crossing the range on the north. Whereas, should I find
sufficient reason to believe that the Darling would join the Murray, I
might continue my journey down the Lachlan until I reduced the distance
across to the Darling as much as the scarcity of water might render
necessary.

We traversed fine plains of greater extent than I had ever seen before,
and in general of more tenacious surface. They were in many parts covered
with salsolaceous plants, but I found also a kind of grass which I had
not previously noticed; and a curious woolly plant with two-spined fruit,
belonging to the genus Sclerolaena of Brown.* I looked in vain however
for the continuation of the range to the northward. The cape
before-mentioned first rose to a considerable height over the horizon,
but as we proceeded it sunk so as to be just visible behind us, bearing
at the point where we lay down for the night 31 degrees East of North.
The continuation of the range, as we now saw, receded to the north-west;
so that the horizon of these plains continued unbroken