nor could any one have dwelt upon their peculiarities with more earnest
attention. It were hazardous to build up any new theory, however ingenious
it may appear. The conclusions into which I have been led, are founded on
actual observation of the country through which I passed, and extend not
beyond my actual range of vision; unless my assuming that the decline of
the interior to the south has been satisfactorily established, be
considered premature. If not, the features of the country certainly
justify my deductions; and it will be found that they were still more
confirmed by subsequent observation.--That the Darling should have lost
its current in its upper branches, is not surprising, when the level
nature of the country into which it falls is taken into consideration;
neither does it surprise me that it should be stationary in one place,
and flowing in another; since, if, as in the present instance, there is a
great extent of country between the two points, which may perhaps be of
considerable elevation, the river may receive tributaries, whose waters
will of course follow the general decline of the country. I take it to be
so in the case before us; and am of opinion, that the lower branches of
the Darling are not at all dependent on its sources for a current, or for
a supply of water. I have somewhere observed that it appeared to me the
depressed interior over which I had already travelled, was of
comparatively recent formation. And, by whatever convulsion or change
so extensive a tract became exposed, I cannot but infer, that the Darling
is the main channel by which the last waters of the ocean were drained
off. The bottom of the estuary, for it cannot be called a valley, being
then left exposed, it consequently remains the natural and proper
reservoir for the streams from the eastward, or those falling easterly
from the westward, if any such remain to be discovered.

From the junction of the Morumbidgee to the junction of the new river, the
Murray had held a W.N.W. course. From the last junction it changed its