rning,
leaving the party in charge of Mr. White, I commenced my ride homeward
through the woods, followed only by my man Brown; and on reaching
Segenhoe I forwarded to the Government my official despatch, announcing
the return of the party, and the result of the expedition.

...

CONCLUSION.

On my arrival at Sydney I learnt that the life of the convict Clarke had
been spared, and that my report of the course of the Peel and the Namoi
coinciding, as notified in my first despatch, with his description of
these rivers, had encouraged the Government to place more confidence in
his story. It was now obvious however that the account of his travels
beyond Tangulda was little else than pure invention. I examined him in
the hulk at Sydney in the presence of the acting Governor, and was quite
satisfied that he had never been beyond the Nundewar range. Nevertheless
he persisted in his story of the river, and a party of mounted police
commanded by Captain Forbes of the 39th regiment repaired to the Namoi,
in search of a gang of bushrangers, but not without hopes of finding the
Kindur.

That active and enterprising officer reached the Gwydir in latitude 29
degrees 27 minutes 37 seconds South, longitude 150 degrees 5 minutes
East. Tracing upwards its course, or a branch of this river, he arrived
near the western extremity of the Nundewar range, and ascended the hill
named by him Mount Albuera. Being accompanied by a native of Bathurst, he
ascertained that the aboriginal name of the singular-looking hill forming
the western extremity of that range was Courada (the name of The Barber's
burning mountain) and his plains of Ballyran were found to be those
crossed by my party in returning from Snodgrass Lagoon.

This journey of discovery proved that any large river flowing to the
north-west must be far to the northward of latitude 29 degrees. All the
rivers south of that parallel, and which had been described by The Barber
as falling into such a river as the Kindur, have been ascertained to
belong wholly to the basin of the Darling.

The country we traversed was very eligible in many parts for the
formation of grazing establishments, as a proof of which it may be
mentioned that flocks of sheep soon covered the plains of Mulluba, and
that the country around The Barber's stockyard has, ever since the return
of the expedition, been occupied by the cattle of Sir John Jamieson. At a
still greater distance from the settled districts much