saw nothing like it. Kangaroos showed their heads occasionally amid the
long grass: the air was all astir with pigeons, and traces of native
inhabitants were numerous. As the sun was then near setting, we hastened
back to the pond, and lay down beside it for the night, which happened to
be a mild one. Thermometer, at sunrise, 20°; at noon, 72°; at 4 P.M.,
71°; at 9, 44°.

27TH MAY.--We rode nearly westward towards a conical hill, which I had
seen on the evening before, and named Mount Lonsdale. This peak appeared
to me then to promise an extensive view to the W. and S.W., and in that
expectation I was not disappointed. I also fortunately recognised two of
my fixed points, at distances of thirty-two and fortytwo miles
respectively, besides an elevated extremity of the continuous range on
the S., which I had previously intersected, and here determined to be
only five miles off, bearing about S.E.b.S. I could now see not only
westward, but to the southward of S.W., for nearly twenty miles over a
long flat, containing indeed, a line of ACACIA PENDULA scrub, such as
accompanies lines of water drainage, but no river. All the country in
sight more to the northward seemed to fall that way, or southward, and
although it seemed possible that a cross line of valley and blue mist at
the far extremity of the flat might be the river, it was much more
probable, from the general slope of the country, that it was only another
tributary coming from the north.[*] Such was Yuranigh's opinion too, who
alone stood on that peak with me, and who there reminded me of the fate
of the rivers Macquarie and Narran, and maintained that rivers were not
to be found every where. "Where then is our river, Mr. Yuranigh?" "Bel me
know," was the reply. I could soon have found this out, however, had it
been an object for our journey northward. It was enough to know then that
it did not turn into that interior country, which was open, and looked
much lower, and how much further the fine valley extended beyond the