ground to the eye, bore unequivocal marks of frequent and extensive
inundation. He traced two rivers of considerable size, and found that, at
a great distance from each other, they apparently terminated in marshes,
and that the country beyond them was low and unbroken. In his progress
eastward, he crossed a third stream (the Castlereagh), about forty-five
miles from the Macquarie, seemingly not inferior to it in size,
originating in the mountains for which he was making, and flowing nearly
parallel to the other rivers into a level country like that which he had
just quitted.

DISCOVERIES OF MESSRS. MECHAN, HUME, HOVEL AND CUNNINGHAM.

Mr. Evans, moreover, who accompanied Mr. Oxley on these journeys, and who
had been detached by his principal from Mount Harris, to ascertain the
nature of the country in the line which the expedition was next to pursue,
having crossed the Castlereagh considerably below the place at which the
party afterwards effected a passage, reported that the river was then
running through high reeds. The inference naturally drawn by Mr. Oxley,
was, that it terminated as the Lachlan and the Macquarie had done; and
that their united waters formed an inland sea or basin. It is evident that
Mr. Oxley had this impression on his mind, when he turned towards the
coast; but the wet state of the lowlands prevented him from ascertaining
its correctness or error. Doubt, consequently, still existed as to the
nature of the country he had left behind him; a question in which the best
interests of the colony were apparently involved. Subsequently to these
discoveries, Mr. Surveyor Mechan, accompanied by Mr. Hamilton Hume, a
colonist of considerable experience, explored the country more to the
southward and westward of Sydney, and discovered most of the new country
called Argyle, and also Lake Bathurst.