ght miles from our camp, by riding first three miles
west, and then five in the direction of 20 degrees north of west by
compass. The people with me immediately declared it was our old
acquaintance the Karaula, unaltered in a single feature. Here we saw the
same description of broken earthy banks; the same kind of lofty trees,
and the long, deep, and still reaches, so characteristic of a lengthened
and slumbering course.

THE WATER SWEET.

But the great question to be determined was the quality of the water,
which, appearing to me from the top of the bank, very transparent, and of
a greenish tinge, and without any indication of a current, I did not
doubt was salt, as when first discovered in nearly the same latitude by
Sturt. I was however so agreeably surprised, on descending the steep
bank, to find the taste perfectly sweet, that I began to doubt if this
river could be The Darling, thinking, from the difference in the
longitude especially, that it might still be the lower part of the Bogan,
the course of which continued westward, and on my right as I rode from
the camp. I proceeded some distance down the river, and found the reaches
to extend first west-north-west, next north-north-east (half a mile) then
south-west by south (1 1/2 miles); I was at length satisfied that this
was indeed the river Darling, and I was no less gratified in perceiving a
slight current in it with no obstruction for our boats as far as I had
yet examined. The paths of the natives were fresh-trodden, but we saw
none of them, and I returned towards the camp, where I arrived by two
P.M. The bed of the Darling at the place where we reached it could not be
elevated more, according to the state of the barometrical column (as
compared at the time with that of my barometer as it had stood at
Parramatta bridge) than 250 feet above the level of the sea.

NATIVES AFRAID OF THE SHEEP.

I found that the natives whom I had left at the camp no longer remained
there, having quitted it soon after my departure, apparently afraid of
the sheep!

May 26.

A party of our friends the natives again made their appearance; and five
of them, including the three who had visited us yesterday, took their
stations under the same tree, while a number of gins and children
remained on the border of the scrub, half a mile off. Just before the
camp broke up I went to them and gave a tomahawk to an old grey-haired
man. The chief spokesman was a ferocious forward sort of s