Still, with all the appearance of far-spread inundation, it continued
undiminished in size, and apparently in the strength of its current.
Its channel was deeper than near the mountains, but its breadth was about
the same.

On the 24th, we were again entangled amidst fields of polygonum, through
which we laboured until after eleven, when we gained a firmer soil. Some
cypresses appeared upon our right, in a dark line, and I indulged hopes
that a change was about to take place in the nature of the country. We
soon, however, got on a light rotten earth, and were again obliged to make
for the river, with the teams completely exhausted. We had not travelled
many miles from our last camp, yet it struck me, that the river had
fallen off in appearance. I examined it with feelings of intense anxiety,
certain, as I was, that the flooded spaces, over which we had been
travelling would, sooner or later, be succeeded by a country overgrown
with reeds. The river evidently overflowed its banks, on both sides,
for many miles, nor had I a doubt that, at some periods, the space
northward, between it and the Lachlan, presented the appearance of one
vast sea. The flats of polygonum stretched away to the N.W. to an amazing
distance, as well as in a southerly direction, and the very nature of the
soil bore testimony to its flooded origin. But the most unaccountable
circumstance to me was, that it should be entirely destitute of
vegetation, with the exception of the gloomy and leafless bramble I have
noticed.

M'Leay, who was always indefatigable in his pursuit after subjects of
natural history, shot a cockatoo, of a new species, hereabouts, having a
singularly shaped upper mandible. It was white, with scarlet down under
the neck feathers, smaller than the common cockatoo, and remarkable for
other peculiarities.