happened to be the case whenever we were obliged to experience the want
of water. The thermometer under a tree stood at 110°. The store-keeper
was taken ill with vertigo. Our bull-dog perished in the heat, and the
fate of the cattle, still a day's journey behind us, and of the sheep,
which had not drunk for two days, were subjects of much anxiety to me at
that time. It may, therefore, be imagined with what pleasure I at length
saw before me large basins of water in the channel of the Macquarie, when
I next approached the banks, after a journey at a good pace for six hours
and a half. We had made it below the junction of Morissett's Ponds, and
found that a recent flood had filled its channel with water. The natives
dived into it to cure their headaches, as they said, and seemed to go
completely under water, in order to take a cool drink. We had reached the
united channel of the Macquarie and Morissett's Ponds, and were at an
easy day's journey only distant from the junction with the BÀRWAN or
"Darling." The use of the aboriginal name of this river is indispensable
amongst the squatters along its banks, who do not appear to know it to be
the "Darling." It is most desirable to restore to such rivers their
proper names as early as possible after they have been ascertained, were
it only to enable strangers thereby to avail themselves of the
intelligence and assistance of the natives, in identifying the country by
means of the published maps. The river Castlereagh is known to the
natives as the Barr; Morissett's Ponds, as the Wàwill; and the lower part
of the Macquarie, as the Wammerawà. The squatting system of occupation
requires still more that the native names of rivers should be known to
commissioners empowered to parcel out unsurveyed regions of vast extent,
whereof the western limits would be, indeed, beyond their reach or
control, but for the line of an angry savage population, which line the
squatter dares not to cross unsupported by an armed mounted police.
Thermometer at sunrise, 59°; at noon, 110°; at 4 P. M., 107°; at 9, 89°;
--with wet bulb 72°.