hroughout Asia and America, but
new to me in Australia, grew near the scrubs. Here also grows a new
species of Eleusine, being a very tall nutritious grass.*

(*Footnote. E. marginata, Lindley manuscripts; culmo tereti glabro,
foliis glabris, ligula nulla, spicis digitatis strictis, spiculis
subsexfloris, palea inferiore carinata mucronata marginata.)

August 24.

Retracing still our former steps, we reached a pond on the Bogan 3 1/2
miles short of our camp of May 12. There I fixed the camp in open ground
and near good grass, with the intention of resting for two days; this
repose having become absolutely necessary for the purpose of refreshing
our exhausted cattle.

MR. LARMER TRACES DUCK CREEK UP TO THE MACQUARIE.

August 25.

Being near the route of Mr. Hume when he proceeded westward from Mount
Harris and crossed two creeks, of which the Bogan was one; I was desirous
of ascertaining the source of the other, whose channel he had found
intermediate between this river and the Macquarie. Being occupied in
completing my plans of the Darling preparatory to my immediate return to
the colony, I instructed Mr. Larmer to proceed on a survey of that creek
by tracing from our next camp (that of May 12) on a bearing of 102
degrees East of North, until he reached it, and then to follow it up. Mr.
Larmer took with him five men and a week's provisions, also a copy of our
recent survey of the Bogan, with Mr. Oxley's Macquarie; and I instructed
him to rejoin the main party at Cudduldury, the camp where I calculated
we should arrive about the probable time of his return.

A HOT WIND.

August 26.

The morning was calm but about noon a hot wind set in, blowing very
strongly from the north-north-west, the thermometer stood at 86 degrees,
but by sunset at 80 degrees. I had been sensible of a parching and
unseasonable dryness and warmth in the winds from that quarter throughout
the winter, while farther in the interior; and it may be inferred from
these hot winds blowing so early in the season that the drought and the
absence of any humidity in the climate prevailed to a very great extent
over the interior regions. This is what I should expect to find in the
central parts of Australia, from the nature of that portion which I had
seen and the state of the weather throughout the winter. An almost
perpetual sunshine had prevailed, dry cirro-cumulus clouds had arisen
indeed sometimes, but no point of the earth's surface was of suffi