ss grows there much more abundantly, and the beds of the
streams appear to be much more retentive.

CHARACTER OF THE RIVER BOGAN.

All the water which we had used during five months belonged to the basin
of the Darling, but today we again tasted of that from channels which led
towards the Lachlan. The chief sources of the Bogan arise in Hervey's
range, and also in that much less elevated country situated between the
Lachlan and the Macquarie. The uniformity of the little river Bogan from
its spring to its junction with the Darling is very remarkable. In a
course of 250 miles no change is observable in the character of its
banks, or the breadth of its bed, neither are the ponds near its source
less numerous or of less magnitude than those near its junction with the
principal stream. Mr. Dixon estimated the velocity of the current at four
miles per hour where its course is most westerly. There are few or no
pebbles in its bed, and no reeds grow upon the banks, which are generally
sloping and of naked earth but marked with lines of flood similar to
those of the Darling. It has often second banks and, as near that river,
a belt of dwarf eucalypti, box, or rough gum encloses the more stately
flooded-gumtrees with the shining white bark which grow on the immediate
borders of the river. It has also its plains along the banks, some of
them being very extensive; but the soil of these is not only much firmer,
but is also clothed with grass and fringed with a finer variety of trees
and bushes than those of the Darling. Yet in the grasses there is not
such wonderful variety as I found in those on the banks of that river. Of
twenty-six different kinds gathered by me there I found only four on the
Bogan, and not more than four other varieties throughout the whole
course. It appeared that where land was best and grass most abundant the
latter consisted of one or two kinds only, and on the contrary that where
the surface was nearly bare the greatest variety of grasses appeared, as
if nature allowed more plants to struggle for existence where fewest were
actually thriving.

NATIVE INHABITANTS ON ITS BANKS.

The aboriginal inhabitants of the banks of the Bogan include several
distinct tribes.

1. Near the head of the river is the tribe of Bultje, composed of many
intelligent natives, who have acquired a tolerable knowledge of our
language; the number of this tribe is about 120. One, or in some cases
two, of the front teeth of males