Desirous Of Ascertaining If Our Conjectures Were Well Founded In Respect
To The River, We Altered Our Course, Which Was East, To North-East,
Keeping Down The South Side Of The Valley Or Plain, Which We Had Seen
From Mount Johnston.
A finer or more fertile country than that we passed
through for about four miles and a half cannot be imagined:
The soil, a
light brown, sandy loam, covered with broom-grass from four to five feet
high. After travelling the above distance, we most unexpectedly came
upon a stream, which from its high grassy banks and rocky bottom we were
obliged to conclude must be the river we were in search of; but so
diminished in magnitude that the motion of the water connecting the long
chains of reedy ponds, was so slow as scarcely to entitle it to the
appellation of a living stream. The whole country from where we quitted
the Lachlan to this spot had borne evident marks of long continued
drought, and in no part was it more apparent than in the present stream
which was so much smaller than it was at Bathurst, even after the great
drought in 1815, that after going up it three or four miles, I began to
entertain great doubts of its being the same, hoping that it might be
one of the channels which must convey the waters from the high ranges of
hills, lying nearly midway between the Lachlan and the Macquarie Rivers.
Observing a fine and extensive flat on the opposite side of the stream,
which having been formerly burnt, was now covered with good grass, we
crossed over at a place not ankle deep, and about six or eight feet wide,
over a bottom of sand and stone, and halted for the evening; intending
also to remain the ensuing day, to refresh the horses, as they had
performed an excellent and continued week's work, and much required it.
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