latitudes observed at almost every encampment, and after determining at
various points the magnetic variation, which appeared to be very steady,
I made the latitude of this camp 30° 6' 11" south. Thermometer at
sunrise, 72°; at noon, 99°; at 4 P.M., 97°; at 9, 72°; and with wet bulb,
65°. The height above the sea level of the bed of the river here, the
average result of eight observations, as calculated by Capt. King, was
415 feet.

4TH MARCH.--The party moved off towards the ford over the Bàrwan at
Wyàbry, crossing the bed of the Macquarie about half a mile above its
junction with the Bàrwan; there, although the approaches had been well
enough cut, we found the bottom too soft for our heavy vehicles, one of
which dipped its wheel to near the axle. We were obliged to pave the soft
and muddy bed with logs, and to cover these with branches, on which earth
was thrown, ere the rest could be got across. The party arrived about
noon at Wyàbry, and by 2 P.M. the whole was safely encamped on the right
bank of the Bàrwan. I had received this morning a dispatch from my son,
commissioner of this district, in which he gave me a most favourable
account of several rivers he had explored in the direction of my proposed
route. These dispatches came to me at the last camp by the hands of a
native, in forty-four hours after the superintendent of Mr. Lawson, being
then on his way down the river, had promised to send them to me, from a
station forty-five miles off, towards Fort Bourke, where it had been
supposed my party would pass. Lat. of this camp, 30° 5' 41" S. On this
northern bank of the Darling we looked for novelty in botany, and found
some interesting plants, such as a toothed variety of SENERIO
BRACHYLOENUS D. C., a kind of groundsel; MORGANIA FLORIBUNDA, loaded with
purple blossoms, and a variety of HELICHRYSUM BRACTEATUM, somewhat
different in the leaves from the usual state of the species. Thermometer
at sunrise, 70°; at 4 P.M., 98°; at 9, 72°;--with wet bulb, 61°.