I Found It But An Inconsiderable One, Being Merely A
Lagoon, Except In Times Of Flood Like The Present, When It Appears
Nearly As Large As The Parent Stream; It Forms An Island Ten Or Twelve
Miles Long, And From Two To Four Broad.
The impossibility of our
travelling up this side was demonstrated, as well as the nature of these
lower grounds or clear plains, which retain all the water that falls
upon them, the little inequalities forming shallow pools.
It was much
better travelling over them, than on a low ridge of hills a couple of
miles from the river on which I returned; the soil of the latter being
so loose and boggy as to render it difficult for the horses to proceed.
On my return I found considerable progress had been made in transporting
our luggage, and by four o'clock every thing was safely crossed; our
little bark was however completely water logged, and at last would
scarcely support a single man, though when first launched, three or four
might venture in her with safety.
As I think the state of the seasons in New South Wales may serve to
explain, at least partially, why there are no running streams in
the western parts of it, it may be worth while to make some little
inquiry into that subject. It appears to me that it can never rain
simultaneously westward of the Blue Mountains and on the coast,
for these reasons: first, That the Lachlan and Macquarie Rivers,
being the sole channels by which the waters falling on the Blue Mountain
range are conveyed westward to the low-lands, are always flooded in
times of great rains in those mountains and on the coast; secondly, that
the winter, that is to say, the period between March and August, is the
time when the rains are most to be expected, and have most generally
fallen on the east coast, and which so falling would naturally cause a
flood in the streams above mentioned; thirdly, that in the summer
season, or from September to February, which is certainly the driest
period of the year, the rains fall westward of the Blue Mountains; but
falling upon flat sandy land without any watercourses, do not in the
smallest degree add to the waters of the Lachlan or Macquarie, which are
then consequently in a state nearly if not entirely stagnant.
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