Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia Part 2

in search of the shepherd and sheep, while at the same time I sent William Baldock and Yaranigh back along our track in search of the stray bullocks. Meanwhile I conducted the party along my former track to Muda, where we met Mr. Kennedy and Piper with the shepherd and sheep, already arrived there. The shepherd stated that the fatigue of having been on watch the previous night had overcome him; that he fell asleep, and that the sheep went astray; that he followed and found them, but lost himself.

He had met one or two natives who offered him honey, etc. which he declined.

We encamped beside the old stock-yard and the ruins of a dairy, only visible in the remaining excavation. But a paddock was still in such a state of preservation, that in one day we completed the enclosure. We had pa.s.sed near Bugabada similar remains of a cattle station. This position of Muda was a fine place for such an establishment; a high bank nearly clear of timber, overlooking a n.o.ble reach of great capacity, and surrounded by an open forest country, covered with luxuriant gra.s.s. The last crop stood up yellow, like a neglected field of oats, in the way of a young crop shooting up amongst it.

11TH JANUARY, 1846.--Sunday. Prayers were read to the men, and the cattle and party rested. The day was cool and cloudy.

12TH JANUARY.--Still I halted at Muda for the lost bullocks. To-day I noticed the KOCHIA BREVIFOLIA, a little salt-bush, with greenish yellow fruit, edged with pink.

13TH JANUARY.--Baldock and Yuranigh arrived early in the morning (by moonlight) with five of the stray bullocks. Two others (young ones) could not be driven along, and one old bullock was still astray at Mr. Kerr's station (to which they had returned) and could not even then be found. We had now in all 106 bullocks, and, considering the great scarcity of water, heat, and consequent drought, I was most thankful that our loss had been so slight.

I proceeded to reconnoitre the country in a straight line towards Nyingan, which bore 353--and having found a tolerably open country for about six miles, I returned and took the party on so far, and encamped, sending back all the cattle and horses to the water at Muda. Enough had been carried forward for the men who were to remain at the camp. To ensure the early return of the cattle, I had repaired, as already stated, the paddock at Muda, in which during this night, they could be secured, having also sufficient gra.s.s,--likewise the horses. In my ride I found a new gra.s.s of the genus CHLORIS[*], something like CHL. TRUNCATA in habit, some starved specimens of TRICHINIUM LANATUM; amongst the gra.s.ses I also found the ARISTIDA CALYCINA of Brown, the curious NEURACHNE MITCh.e.l.lIANA Nees, discovered originally by me in 1836, and also a new PAPPOPHORUM with the aspect of our European Anthoxanthum.[**] A smart shower fell during the evening.

[* C. ACICULARIS (Lindl. MS.); culmo stricto, foliis involutis glabris tactu scabris, spicis 8--9 subacutis, spiculis bifloris, flore utroque setaceo aristato, supremo sterili angustissimo, paleis dorso scabris.]

[** P. FLAVESCENS (Lindl. MS.); aristis 9 rigidis pallidis plumosis, spica composita densissima oblonga, paleis lanatis, glumis ovatis pilosis, foliis vaginisque p.u.b.escentibus tactu scabris, geniculis villosis.]

14TH JANUARY.--The cattle arrived early from Muda, and were immediately yoked to the drays. I proceeded with the light carts, still on the same bearing, until arriving near Dar, where I had formerly been encamped, I turned to the left to ascertain if there really was no water there. I found two excellent ponds, and encamped beside them after a journey of about ten miles. The drays arrived early and I subsequently found I had encamped near my old ground of 9th May, 1835, when I was guided by the friendly chief of the Bogan tribe to the best water holes his country afforded. By the route I had selected from my former surveys, I had cut off the great bend described by the Bogan in changing from a north- westerly to a northerly course, and the track now left by our wheels will probably continue to be used as a road, when the banks of the Bogan may be again occupied by the colonists. At Darwere still most substantial stock-yards, and, as usual, the deep dug foundations of a dairy that had been burnt down.

15TH JANUARY.--Eight bullocks were missing, and although the day was fine, not too hot, I could not think of moving until these cattle were found. Accordingly, at earliest dawn, I despatched William Baldock and the native to look for them. In the course of the day six were found by Baldock in one direction, and the remaining two, afterwards, in another.

An inconspicuous blue-flowered Erigeron grew here, also the JASMINUM LINEARE, with its sweet-scented white flowers--and, near the water, I saw the ALTERNANTHERA NODIFLORA.

16TH JANUARY.--At a good early hour the party moved from Dar, crossing the Bogan and falling into my former track and line of marked trees. We lost these, however, on crossing the Bogan at Murgaba, and made a slight detour to the eastward before we found Nyingan, where we encamped, and were joined by the drays by twelve o'clock. During this day's journey Piper and Yuranigh discovered fresh traces of hors.e.m.e.n with those of the feet of a native guide, come from the East to my old track, and returning, apparently, as our natives thought, looking for traces of our party.

At Nyingan we found many recent huts and other indications of the natives, but saw none. Large stock-yards and a paddock remained, but a house and garden fences had been burnt down. The great ponds were sunken very low and covered with aquatic weeds. As soon as the camp had been established with the usual attention to defence, I set out to look for the next water, and after riding twelve miles nearly in the direction of my former route, I reached the dry channel of the Bogan, and tracing it thence upwards, I sought in every hollow at all its turnings for water, but in vain, and I reached the camp only at dusk, without having seen, during the day, any other ponds than those of Nyingan.

17TH JANUARY.--Early this morning, I sent Mr. Kennedy with the native Yuranigh, also on horseback, to run back my track of yesterday to the Bogan where I had commenced its examination upwards, and from that point to examine the channel downwards to the nearest water, provided this did not take Mr. Kennedy too far to admit of his return by sunset. Two old women came to the ponds of Nyingan for water, by whom Piper was told that the nearest permanent water was "NIMINe," where white men had attempted to form a cattle-station, and been prevented by natives from the Darling, many of whom had since been shot by the white men. They said the place was far beyond Canbelego, the next stage of my former journey, and where these women also said little or no water remained.

Mr. Kennedy returned at eleven A.M., having found water at Canbelego.

Yuranigh brought with him a large green specimen of the fruit of the CAPPARIS MITCh.e.l.lII, which he called an apple, being new to him, but which d.i.c.ky, the younger native from the Lower Bogan, knew, and said was called "MOGUILE;" he also said that it was eaten by the natives.

18TH JANUARY.--The party moved to Canbelego where one or two small ponds remained, but on the plains adjacent there was better gra.s.s than we had hitherto found near those places where, for the sake of water, we had been obliged to encamp. I sent Mr. Kennedy again forward looking for water, but he returned sooner than I expected, and after following the river down twelve miles, without finding any. I was now within the same distance of Duck Creek, in which Mr. Larmer had found abundance of water when I sent him to survey it upwards during my last return journey up the Bogan. It also seemed, from the direction in which Piper pointed, that the old gins referred to Duck Creek, as containing water; and as the course of that creek, so far as shown on maps, led even more directly to the Darling than did the Bogan, I was willing in such a season of extreme drought, to avail myself of its waters. My eye had been much injured by straining at stars while at the camp near Walwadyer, and I was obliged to send Mr. Kennedy on one of my own horses, followed by Graham, to examine the water in Duck Creek. I instructed him to proceed on a bearing of 35 E. of North, until he should reach the creek, and if he found water in it to return direct to the camp, but that if water was not found on first making the creek, then he was to follow Duck Creek up to its junction with an eastern branch, surveyed also by Mr. Larmer, and to return thence to the camp on a bearing of 240. I also sent Corporal Macavoy with Yuranigh down the Bogan, to ascertain if the channel contained any pond between our camp and the part previously examined by Mr. Kennedy.

This officer returned from Duck Creek after an absence of twelve hours, and reported that he had found no water in Duck Creek after examining its bed twelve miles; but that he had found a fine lagoon on the plains near the head of the eastern branch, but around which there was no gra.s.s, all having been recently burnt.

20TH JANUARY.--Macavoy returned at seven A.M., saying he had been twenty- four miles down the Bogan without finding any water. About the same time Sergeant Niblett, in charge of the bullocks, came to inform me that these animals were looking very ill, and could not drink the mud remaining in the pond. At the same time intelligence was brought me that four of the horses had broken their tether ropes during the night, and that William Baldock had been absent in search of them on foot, from an early hour in the morning. I immediately sent back the whole of the bullocks to Nyingan, with a dray containing the empty harness casks, also the horses, and a cart carrying all our other empty casks; and the whole of the cattle and horses returned in the evening with all the casks filled.

21ST JANUARY.--Having again despatched the bullocks back to Nyingan, I conducted the light carts forward along my old track (of 1835), having on two of these carts two of the half-boats, and in the carts under them all the water-kegs that had been filled. My object was to use the iron boat as a tank, at which we might water the bullocks at one stage forward; that by so gaining that point and proceeding onwards towards the water I hoped to find next day, we might encamp at least at such a convenient distance from it, as would admit of the cattle being driven forward to return next day and draw the drays to it. This I considered possible, even if it might be found necessary to go as far for water as the fine reach described in my journal as the place of my encampment on the 14th May, 1835, beyond Mount Hopeless, and which I concluded from the gin's description, must have been what she called Nimine, or the disputed station of Lee. I encamped this party on a plain about twelve miles from Canbelego, where I had left Mr. Kennedy, with instructions to bring the drays on with the spare cattle and horses early next morning. I had sent thence Corporal Macavoy and Yuranigh to follow the track of Baldock and the horses; but it was obvious that we could remain no longer at Canbelego. As soon as we could set up one of the half-boats, the contents of the water-kegs were emptied into it, and the cart was immediately sent back with the empty kegs to Canbelego, where fresh horses had been left, to continue with the same cart and empty kegs to Nyingan during the night, so as to arrive in time to admit of the dray--already there with the harness casks--bringing an additional supply back in the kegs, when the bullocks returned next day.

It was now necessary that I should ascertain as soon as possible the state of the ponds lower down the Bogan, and thereupon determine at once, whether to follow that dry channel further in such a season, or to cross to the pond in Duck Creek, and await more favourable weather. I accordingly set out at 3 P.M., from where the water had been placed in the half-boat, accompanied by Dr. Stephenson, and followed by Corporal Graham and d.i.c.ky the native boy. By the advice of the latter, I rode from the camp in the direction of 30 E. of N., and, crossing the Bogan, we reached at about 3 miles beyond it, a channel like it, which I supposed was Duck Creek; and in it, just where we made it, there was a small pond of water. Having refreshed our horses, we followed this channel downwards, without meeting with more water. To my surprise, I found the general direction was westward, until it JOINED THE BOGAN. We next followed the course of the Bogan as long as daylight allowed us to do so, without discovering any indication that water had recently lodged in any of the hollows, and we finally tied up our horses and lay down to sleep, in hopes that next day might enable us to be more successful.

22D JANUARY.--Having proceeded some miles along the western bends of the Bogan, hastily--being desirous to see that day the great pond beyond Mount Hopeless--I observed that the clay was very s.h.i.+ning and compact in a hollow sloping into an angle of the river-bed, that the gra.s.s was green as from recent rain, and that there was more chirping of birds; I was tempted once more by these indications, to look for water in the Bogan's almost hopeless channel, and there we found a pond, at sight of which poor d.i.c.ky shouted for joy; then drank, and fell asleep almost in the water. It was small, but being sufficient for our immediate wants, we thankfully refreshed our horses and ourselves, and proceeded on our eventful journey. Almost immediately after leaving this pond I discovered my old track, which we continued to follow across those large plains, whence I had formerly discovered Mount Hopeless. These plains I soon again recognized from the old tracks of my draywheels, distinctly visible in many places after a lapse of nearly eleven years. Arriving at length near the debateable land of Lee's old station, we resumed our examination of the Bogan. There we perceived old cattle tracks; the ovens in which the natives had roasted whole bullocks, and about their old encampments many heaps of bones; but in none of the deep beds of former ponds or lagoons could we discover any water. The gra.s.s was nevertheless excellent and abundant; and its waste, added to the distress the want of water occasioned us, made us doubly lament the absence of civilised inhabitants, by whose industry that rich pasture and fine soil could have been turned to good account. We saw no natives; nor were even kangaroos or emus to be seen, as formerly, any longer inhabitants of these parts. I turned at length, reluctantly, convinced that it would have been unsafe to venture with cattle and drays into these regions before rain fell. In returning, we at first found it difficult to find our old track, by which alone we could hope that night to reach the small pond of the morning; but Dr. Stephenson very fortunately found it, and we had also the good fortune, for so we considered it, to arrive at the pond before sunset.

There we tied up our horses and lay down, glad indeed to have even that water before our eyes. d.i.c.ky, the native boy, had repeatedly thrown himself from his horse during the afternoon, quite ill from thirst.

23D JANUARY.--After our horses had drank, we left no water in the pond; but they had fed on good gra.s.s, and we were well refreshed, although with water only, for our ride back to the camp. Setting off from an old marked tree of mine near the Bogan, on a bearing of 160, I several times during our ride fell in with the old track, and finally reached the camp after a rapid ride of four hours. I found the whole party had arrived the previous evening with the water, as arranged; but that Mr. Kennedy was absent, having set off that morning in search of water to the N. E. with Corporal Macavoy, on two government horses, leaving word that he should return by twelve o'clock. He did not return at that hour, however, and at two I moved the party across the Bogan, and proceeded along open plains towards the ponds at Duck Creek, with the intention of there refres.h.i.+ng the cattle and horses, and awaiting more favourable weather. I previously watered out of the half-boat, 106 bullocks, and gave a quart to each of the horses. On the way, the heat was so intense that our three best and strongest kangaroo dogs died, and it was not until 10 P. M. that the drays reached the ponds where I had proposed to encamp. About an hour and a half before, Mr. Kennedy also came in, having galloped the two horses 66 miles, and hurt both their backs, Macavoy being a heavy man. At 9 P.

M., therm. 80, wet bulb, 68.

24TH JANUARY.--This morning I awoke completely blind, from ophthalmia, and was obliged to have poultices laid on my eyes; several of the men were also affected in the same manner. The exciting cause of this malady in an organ presenting a moist surface was, obviously, the warm air wholly devoid of moisture, and likely to produce the same effect until the weather changed. At 9 P. M., therm. 84, with wet bulb, 68.

Chapter II.

SEND TO NYINGAN FOR LEECHES.--BETTER PONDS FOUND TO THE NORTHEAST.--MOVE TO THE PONDS OF CANNONBa AND SET UP OUR BIVOUAC.--HOT WIND.--HEAT GREATER THAN MY TABLE FOR EXPANSION OF MERCURY WAS CALCULATED FOR.--PIPER'S INTENTION TO QUIT THE PARTY.--HIS SENT TO BATHURST.--WEATHER CHANGES.-- RAIN.--MR. KENNEDY RETURNS FROM THE MACQUARIE.--SALT MADE FROM THE SALT PLANT.--RECONNOITRE "DUCK CREEK."--THE PARTY QUITS CANNONBa--CROSSES PLAINS TO MARRA CREEK--AND THENCE TO THE RIVER MACQUARIE.--OPHTHALMIA STILL TROUBLESOME.--APPROACH OF A FLOOD ANNOUNCED.--ITS ARRIVAL IN CLEAR MOONLIGHT.--MR. KINGHORNE GUIDES THE PARTY ALONG THE REEDY BANKS.--NO WATER FOUND IN "DUCK CREEK."--DIFFICULTY OF WATERING THE CATTLE FROM SOFTNESS OF THE BANKS OF PONDS AMONGST THE REEDS.--"YULLIYALLY," A NATIVE, GUIDES THE PARTY.--NEW PLANTS DISCOVERED.--DESCRIPTION OF OUR NATIVE GUIDE.--CONDITION OF HIS COUNTRYMEN.--HOW AFFECTED BY THE INTRUSION OF THE WHITE RACE.--AT LENGTH EMERGE FROM THE REEDS.--WATER SCARCE.--NECESSITY FOR PRESERVING ABORIGINAL NAMES OF RIVERS.--DELAYED BY STRAY BULLOCKS SEVERAL DAYS.--AT LENGTH ARRIVE AT THE JUNCTION OF THE RIVER WITH THE DARLING.--CROSS THE MACQUARIE NEAR ITS JUNCTION--AND FORD THE DARLING AT WYaBRY.

25TH JANUARY.--Dr. Stephenson having recommended the application of leeches, and having observed them in the ponds at Nyingan, I sent William Baldock and Yuranigh there in search of some, and they brought back enough. Fourteen were applied to my eyes the same afternoon. The ground here was quite naked; it was, in fact, the blue clay of the Darling, with the same sterile looking plants; and no time was to be lost in seeking some ponds where there might be also good gra.s.s for the cattle. Therm. at sunrise, 97; at noon, 100; at 9 P.M. 90; with wet bulb, 71.

26TH JANUARY.--I sent Corporal Graham with Piper, in a N. E. direction to where we had observed the light of burning woods reflected from a cloudy sky last evening; considering that a sure indication that water was near, as natives are seldom found where there is none. He returned early with the welcome tidings that he had found abundance of water in a creek about five miles off, and excellent gra.s.s upon its banks. My eyes were so far recovered that I could observe the alt.i.tude of a star, thus ascertaining the lat.i.tude of this camp to be 31 20' 20" S. Therm. at sunrise, 85; at noon, 112; at 9 P.M. 84; with wet bulb, 70.

27TH JANUARY.--The whole party moved to the ponds called "Cannonba" by the natives. There we found greater abundance of water and better gra.s.s than we had seen near water during the whole journey, and I determined to halt for at least two weeks, as part of the time I had previously intended to devote to the repose and refreshment of the cattle, when we should have reached the Darling. The cattle and their drivers had been much hara.s.sed, and both needed and deserved rest. The horses had got out of condition, and I considered that when we arrived at the Darling their services would be more required. I was also to try the experiment here, whether I might prosecute the journey without danger of losing my eyesight; to have abandoned the undertaking at that point, had been almost as painful to me as the other alternative. There were no hostile natives here, the fire having been set up by some solitary gins; rain was daily to be expected, at least cooler weather would certainly come in a short time; the wheels of the drays had been long represented to me as needing a thorough repair, from the effect of the heat on the wheels;-- and, upon the whole, I considered it very fortunate that we could encamp under such circ.u.mstances on so favourable a spot. We placed our tents amongst shady bushes--set up the blacksmith's forge, and soon all hands were at work in their various avocations, whilst the cattle and horses enjoyed the fresh gra.s.s, leisure to eat it, and abundance of water.

Amongst the bushes here, a HAKEA, with simple filiform mucronulate leaves without flower, occurred, loaded with oblong hard galls resembling dry plums. Also the SENECIO CUNNINGHAMI (D.C.), found by Allan Cunningham on the sh.o.r.es of Lake George. Mr. Stephenson discovered here a very pretty new TRICHINIUM, with heads of h.o.a.ry pink flowers. [* T. SEMILANATUM (Lindl. MS.); ramosa, p.u.b.escens, ramulis, angulatis, foliis linearibus acutis noveillis villosis, capitulis paucifloris hemisphericis, rachi dense bracteis uninerviis acutis scpalisque angustis plumosis parce lanatis.]

I learnt from the natives that this creek also joined the Bogan, consequently that the real Duck Creek must either be still to the N. E.

of us, or be a branch out of this. At all events, the creek surveyed by Larmer is thus proved to have been a discovery of his, and a most useful one it has thus proved to us on this emergency. That chain of ponds (whence we had just come) was called Bellaringa; this "Cannonba;" and to what I suppose must be Duck Creek, water to which the natives point northward, they give the name of "Marra." Therm. at sunrise, 78; at noon, 115; at 4 P.M. 96; at 9, 88; with wet bulb, 73.

28TH JANUARY.--Several kettles, a good spade, a Roman balance with large chain complete, barrels, and other articles, were found at the bottom of one of the ponds; and old tracks of cattle were numerous about the banks.

Thus it was clear that this favourable spot for a cattle station had not been unheeded by the white man. It was vaguely a.s.serted by some old gins seen by Piper, that three men had been killed here when the place was abandoned. We were about twelve or fourteen miles to the W.N.W. of Mount Harris; and certainly the general bed of this watercourse was broader than that of the Bogan, and moreover contained much granitic sand, all but identifying its sources with those of the Macquarie. This day was very hot; a thunder cloud pa.s.sed over us, and a shower fell about 3 P.M.

Thermometer at sunrise, 78; at noon, 115; at 4 P.M. 108; at 9, 84; with wet bulb, 63.

29TH JANUARY.--A more than usually hot wind raised the thermometer to 115 in the shade; but distant thunder was soon heard, and the horizon became clouded. The day was very sultry, and although no rain fell near us, it was evident that other parts to the north-east were receiving a heavy shower. Thermometer at sunset, 102.

30TH JANUARY.--An easterly wind brought a refres.h.i.+ng air from the quarter where the thunder-cloud had exhausted itself last evening. This day the doctor found the tree mentioned as bearing a nondescript fruit in my former journal, Vol. I. page 82., but this tree bore neither flower nor fruit. Thermometer at sunrise, 80; at noon, 103; at 4 P.M., 108; at 9, 100 ; with wet bulb, 79.

31ST JANUARY.--The weather still very sultry. I commenced a series of observations with a syphon barometer (made by Bunten of Paris). The table for expansion of mercury and mean dilatation of gla.s.s, sent me by my friend Captain P. P. King, came but to 88 of Fahrenheit, whereas at 4 P.M., the centigrade thermometer stood at 44, which is equal to 112 of Fahrenheit.

This day I was apprised of Piper's intention to leave the party, taking with him the two younger and more useful natives. He had recently made some very unreasonable demands. It was now obvious from various sayings and doings thus brought to my recollection, that he had never any serious intention of accompanying this expedition throughout its progress. The services of other more intelligent natives might easily have been obtained, having been proffered by many in the settled districts, but Piper from having been with me before, was preferred as a matter of course. He had not improved in speech or manners during the long interval of ten years that had elapsed since our former acquaintance, although during that time he had visited Adelaide, Sydney, Moreton Bay, the river Hunter, etc., etc. From the day on which he had joined the party on this last occasion, he had been allowed a horse, saddle, doublebarrelled gun, clothing, and the same rations as the other men, blankets, place in a tent with the men, etc. Unlike most other natives, he was a very bad shot, and very awkward about a horse; it was impossible to obtain any clear intelligence from his countrymen through him as interpreter; he went very unwillingly about doing anything. He had drawn his rations and those of the two young natives separately from the men's mess the week before this, on the plea that they did not obtain their fair share; he was thus premeditately preparing for his clandestine departure, foreseeing that on the Sat.u.r.day, when rations were issued, he could thus obtain a week's provisions in advance, without suspicion. He also had it in his power, like a true savage, to take the lion's share from the other two, in thus drawing rations apart from the men's mess. He had heard of the gins who had made the conflagration having retired towards the cattle-stations on the Macquarie. Here, then, while other men were actively at their work,--blacksmiths, carpenters, bullock-drivers,--this man, who was as well fed and clothed as they, carried on a horse to boot, and doing no work, was the only dissatisfied person. Me, whom he called his "old master," he would heartlessly leave, without a native guide, just at the time when such guides were most required. The only difficulty I felt on this occasion was how to secure the services of the two others, and yet dismiss him. He had just received a week's ration in advance, and he was baking the whole of the flour into bread. I sent to have him instantly seized, and brought with the dough and the other native, Yuranigh, before Mr. Kennedy and myself, as magistrates. He denied the intention to decamp. The other declared he had proposed to him to leave the party and go in search of gins, and that he could not understand him; that he was afraid to accompany Piper in a country so far from his own home (Buree). On this I ordered Piper to be sent to Bathurst, and the rations he was about to carry off, to be given to the other two, and that he should be kept apart from them during the night. Thermometer at sunrise, 85; at noon, 111; at 4 P.M., 112; at 9, 101;--with wet bulb, 78.

1ST FEBRUARY.--This morning Piper was sent off with Corporal Graham. Mr.

Kennedy rode on also in order to find out the nearest police station, and make arrangements, if possible, there, for forwarding Piper to Bathurst, his own district, which would put it out of his power to molest the party by endeavouring to induce the other natives to leave it. On them this measure appeared to have a salutary effect, Yuranigh calmly observing that Piper had only himself to blame for what had befallen him, and that he had acted like a fool. Mr. Kennedy undertook also to obtain, if he could, some more kangaroo dogs to replace those which had died from excessive heat. By that loss our party was left almost without dogs; and dogs were useful not only to kill kangaroos and emus, but to afford protection from, or to give notice of, nightly attacks by the natives, in which attacks those on that part of the Darling we were approaching, had been rather too successful against various armed parties of whites.

Thermometer at sunrise, 88; at noon, 104; at 4 P.M., 106; at 9 P.M., 88;--with wet bulb, 76.

2ND FEBRUARY.--The setting sun descended on a blue stratus cloud which appeared along the edge of all other parts of the horizon, and eagerly watching any indication of a change, I drew even from this a presage of rain. Thermometer at sunrise, 88; at noon, 104; at 4 P.M., 106; at 9, 88;--with wet bulb, 72.

3RD FEBRUARY.--High winds whistled among the trees this morning, and dark clouds of stratus appeared in the sky. A substantial shower fell about 9 A.M., and the horizon was gradually shut in by clouds of nimbus. The high wind had blown steadily from north both yesterday and this morning, and in the same quarter a thunder cloud seemed busy. But when the rain began to fall, the wind s.h.i.+fted to the S.W., from which quarter the rain seemed to come. With it came a very peculiar smell, which I had noticed near Mount Arapiles in 1836, about the time of the commencement of the rainy weather there; and nothing could have been more welcome to us now, than the prospect of rain, and the decided change in the temperature from 115 to 73. This was almost the first day during a month in which the air had not been warmer than our blood; often had it been greater than fever heat, so that 73 felt to us as cool as 50 would have been to a resident of Sydney. Much rain did not fall at our camp, but it seemed that rain was falling about the sources of the Bogan and other places at which a supply of water was indispensable to enable us to proceed. At sunset, glimpses of a clear sky appeared about the horizon, and during the night the moon and stars came forth, and destroyed all hopes of more rain. We were thankful, however, for the relief afforded by what had fallen, which had lowered the temperature about 40 degrees, and enabled us to enjoy a night of refres.h.i.+ng rest. Thermometer at sunrise, 85; at noon, 80; at 4 P.M., 73; at 9, 68;--with wet bulb, 67.

4TH FEBRUARY.--The morning dawned in a most serene sky, with refres.h.i.+ng breezes from the south, and the thermometer at 61. This day we had completed the repair of the wheels of half the drays. Many of the tire- rings had been cut, rewelded, and again fixed and bolted on the wheels; the wood of these having contracted so much in the intense heat, as to have rendered these repairs indispensable. The same repairs were required by the wheels of the remaining drays and those of the light carts, and the smith and wheelwright continued their work with activity and zeal.

Meanwhile the cattle were daily regaining strength and vigour for another effort. Thermometer at sunrise, 61; at noon, 89; at 4 P.M., 89; at 9, 72;--with wet bulb, 62.

5TH FEBRUARY.--This morning the mercurial column stood higher than I had yet observed it here, and clouds of cirrus lay in long streaks across the sky, ranging from east to west, but these were most abundant towards the northern horizon. The day was comparatively cool and pleasant, the thermometer never having risen above 96. By 6 P.M., the barometer had fallen nearly four millimetres, and even upon this apparently trivial circ.u.mstance, I could build some hope of rain; such was my anxiety for a change of weather at that time, when the earth was so parched as not only to preclude our travelling, but almost to deprive us of sight.

Thermometer at sunrise, 60; at noon, 94; at 4 P.M., 96; at 9, 73; with wet bulb, 64.

6TH FEBRUARY.--Dark stratus-shaped clouds wholly covered the sky, and shut out the sun, to my unspeakable delight. A most decided change seemed to have taken place; still the barometer remained as low as on the previous evening. A slight breeze from south-east changed to north, and at about 7 A.M. the rain began to fall. Clouds of nimbus closed on the woody horizon, and we had a day of rain. In the evening the barometer had fallen still lower, and it was probable that the rain might continue through the night. Range of thermometer from 74 to 72.

7TH FEBRUARY.--Some heavy showers fell during the night, and the mercurial column stood exactly at the same point as on the last evening.

About 10 A.M. a very heavy shower fell, after which the sun broke through, and the ma.s.s of vapour separated into vast clouds of nimbus.

Much rain seemed to be still falling in the east, where the Macquarie, Bogan, and other rivers had their sources. At noon, the barometer had risen one millimetre. The rain had penetrated the clay soil of the plains about five inches.

Mr. Kennedy returned in the afternoon, having duly provided for Piper's conveyance by the mounted police to Bathurst, and brought back a good bull-dog, and also some useful information respecting the various water- courses, and the river Macquarie, which he had gathered from the natives about the stations along the banks of that river. Thermometer at sunrise, 74; at noon, 86; at 4 P.M., 90; at 9, 80;--with wet bulb, 75.