en
encamped with his party only three miles behind us.

RESULT OF HIS SURVEY.

He had found in Duck creek long reaches, like canals, full of excellent
water, and covered with wildfowl of every description. On its banks grew
large gumtrees like those on the Darling; and he had traced this channel
to a large lagoon near the Macquarie, the bed of which was found to be
quite dry. Many small watercourses led from the Macquarie into Duck
creek, which indeed appeared to be the lowest channel of this river, the
general fall of the country being to the westward. The identity of the
two channels was further established by the quartzose sand found in both.
It appears that a low range of firm ground separates the Bogan from Duck
creek, the bed of which and all the land between it and the Macquarie
consists of an alluvial soil altogether different, according to Mr.
Larmer, from any we had seen on the Darling. This surface was covered
with a luxuriant green crop of grass, a sight which we had not enjoyed on
this journey, and there were also numerous kangaroos and emus, for whose
absence from the plains of the Bogan we could not previously account.

Mr. Larmer's men were still seven miles behind him, and had had no water
since they left the Macquarie two days previously, nor much to eat, for
they had carried rations for seven days only, and this was the ninth
since they quitted the camp. We therefore sent back a man with a loaf and
a kettle of water, and he met them four miles behind the party. We
continued the journey four miles beyond our old camp, to a pond which the
overseer had found, and was then the nearest water to our former
position. To this pond the cattle came on tolerably well after having
travelled fourteen miles, and having passed the previous night almost
without water. The party was at length reunited here; and we had now
passed the so much-dreaded long dry part of the bed of the Bogan. An old
native and a boy, apparently belonging to the Myall tribes, came in the
evening, but we could learn nothing from them. They were covered with
pieces of blanket, and the man used a Scotch bonnet as a bag. They said
they had been to Buckenba where there were five white men.

TRACES OF MR. CUNNINGHAM.

In the bed of the river where I went this evening to enjoy the sight of
the famished cattle drinking, I came accidentally on an old footstep of
Mr. Cunningham, in the clay, now baked hard by the sun. Four months had
elapsed sinc