About 10 A.M. a very heavy shower fell, after which the sun broke
through, and the mass 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°.

8TH FEBRUARY.--The moisture recently imbibed by the earth and air made us
much more sensible of the high temperature in which we had been living,
although it had been reduced by the late rains. The night air,
especially, breathed no refreshing coolness as heretofore during the dry
heat. The drier earth below seemed to be steaming the wet soil above it
(as Brown, our cook, justly observed). Thermometer at sunrise, 80°; at
noon, 96°; at 4 P.M., 95°; at 9, 80°;--with wet bulb, 75°.

9TH FEBRUARY.--The leisure we enjoyed at this camp, enabled us to bestow
more attention on the vegetable and animal productions of these
remarkable plains, than had been given during my former journey. It
appeared that the saltwort plants, which were numerous, were not only
efficacious in keeping the cattle that fed on them in the best possible
condition; but as wholly preventing cattle and sheep from licking clay, a
vicious habit to which they are so prone, that grassy runs in the higher
country nearer Sydney are sometimes abandoned only on account of the