12TH MARCH.--I found it necessary to sit still here and refresh the jaded
bullocks; thus days and months passed away, in which with horses I might
have continued the journey. The very extensive country before us, which
appeared to absorb these waters, was quite clear of timber, and irrigated
by little canals winding amongst POLYGONUM JUNCEUM. This open country
appeared to extend north-eastward about eight miles, thence to turn
eastward, as if these waters found some outlet that way to the Barwan. I
regretted that this swamp led too far out of our way, to admit of our
tracing its limits to the eastward.

This day I received letters from Commissioner Mitchell, in which he
strongly recommended to my attention the rivers Biree, Bokhara, and
Narran, as waters emanating from, and leading to, the Balonne, a river
which he said might supply our party with water, in this very dry season,
almost to the tropic. I was able to inform him in reply, that I was
already on the Narran, and that I had already availed myself of his
account of the rivers formerly sent me, on which I must have been obliged
to depend, even if the party had passed by Fort Bourke.

This evening, by moonlight, I conducted a dray, carrying two platforms,
to the place where the narrow channel, feeding the swamp, could be passed
without our meeting beyond any other impediment to the drays. The
sleepers used for this purpose were made of pine (CALLITRIS PYRAMIDALIS),
found half a mile back from our camp. They were fourteen feet long, two
feet wide, being composed of cross-pieces, two feet long, fixed at each
end between two sleepers, so that they somewhat resembled a wooden
railway. These, when laid at the proper distance apart to carry both
wheels, were bedded on the soft earth, and the interval between was
filled to a level with them, by layers of polygonum and long grass,