current, it is obvious that no water would remain in such inclined
channels here; but the slope is so gentle that the waters spread into a
net-work of reservoirs, that serve to irrigate vast plains, and fill
lagoons with those floods that, when confined in any one continuous
channel, would at once run off into the ocean.

[* We then understood the natives very imperfectly and might have been
wrong about the name, which is the more likely, as CARÀWY, which the name
resembles, means any deep water-hole.]

In a wet season, the country through which we had traced out a route with
our wheels had been impassable. The direction I should have preferred,
and in which I had endeavoured to proceed, was along the known limits of
this basin, and formed a curved line, or an arc, to which the route
necessity had obliged us to follow was the chord; thus we had not lost
time; but had, in fact, shortened the distance to be travelled over very
considerably. A permanent route had, however, seemed to me more desirable
to any country we might discover, than one liable to be interrupted by
flooded rivers and soft impassable ground. The track of our drays, along
the western side of the Macquarie marshes opened a new and direct route
from Sydney to the banks of the river Darling, by way of Bathurst; and
afforded access to a vast extent of excellent pasturage on the Macquarie,
along the western margin of the marshes, which land would, no doubt, be
soon taken up by squatters. In so dry a climate, and where water is so
frequently scarce, it may, indeed, be found that the shortest line of
route with such advantages would be more frequented than any longer line,
possessing only the remote advantage of security from interruption by too
much water. Thermometer at sunrise, 64°; at noon, 100°; at 4 P.M., 101°;
at 9, 81°; with wet bulb, 61°.