air brought no hills in
view to the north or north-west, a circumstance which surprised me and
afforded additional reason for supposing that the Lachlan might not unite
so soon as had been imagined with the Murrumbidgee.

CONTINUE WESTWARD, AND SOUTH-WEST.

This may require explanation. The course of rivers is in general
conformable to the direction of ranges or the position of those hills
which bound the valley or basin, however extensive, in which they flow.
As this range fell off to the north-west, opposite to where the course of
the Murrumbidgee had continued south-west, it was less probable that the
Lachlan would unite with the main stream there than if the range had
approached, or had even continued parallel to it.

I was disappointed in not finding sufficient water for our use remaining
on the surface after the late rain; and although the country appeared
declining to the westward, and we saw more pigeons and recent marks of
natives, I was reluctantly obliged at length to bend my steps
south-westward and afterwards south. The country we traversed was one
level plain whose extent westward we neither knew nor could discover, and
for some hours during this day's ride scarcely a bush was visible.

SAND HILLS.

Clumps of trees of the flooded box, or marura of the natives, appeared
occasionally in and about the many hollows in the surface; and, on the
isolated eminences of red sand, callitris trees grew, always hopeless
objects to persons in want of water. These patches of sand however were
not numerous, and never rose more than a few feet above the common
surface, which in general consisted of clay more or less tenacious. Parts
of it were quite naked; but others bore a crop of grass about three years
old which probably sprang up after the last thorough drenching of the
surface.

DEEP CRACKS IN THE EARTH.

So parched however was the ground now, especially in those parts which
bore no vegetation, that it yawned in cracks too deep to be fathomed by
the length of my sabre and arm together.

ATRIPLEX.

The best ground for travelling was of a reddish colour, glossy and firm
with tufts of a species of atriplex upon it; a dwarf grass with large
seeds not seen elsewhere by me was springing up, apparently in
consequence of the late rains. This new vegetation did not grow near the
old grass, and was too thin and low to tinge the surface.* The dreary
look of the old grass in other parts, decayed and of the colour of l