The
Banks Of The River Are Much Lower Than Yesterday, Scarcely Exceeding
Twelve Feet High; The Floods Are Low In Proportion, And I Did Not See
Any Mark Showing That The Rise Of Water Ever Exceeded A Foot Above The
Banks.
The river did not offer the slightest obstruction, and was from
twenty to twenty-four feet deep.
There is probably from two to three
feet more in it than usual; the breadth varies considerably, in some
places not more than sixty feet, in others two hundred. All the lagoons
(though very deep), in the neighbourhood of the river are quite dry, and
appearances indicate that the country has not been flooded for years.
Emus and kangaroos are in abundance; but we have lately caught no fish,
owing most likely to the coldness of the weather: various birds
altogether unknown to us were seen; and although the leading plants were
the same as those found through nearly the whole of Australia, new ones
were daily met with. The river has continued inclining to the northward:
its course to-day was north-north-west.
June 26. - The country this day was as various as can be imagined; low
but not level; in some places covered with the acacia pendula,
chenopodeae, and polygonum juncium; in others, with good gum and box
trees. The whole, with few exceptions, appeared liable to flood. Four or
five miles back the country imperceptibly rises, and is free from river
floods; but the hollows, proceeding from the inequalities of its
surface, are in rainy seasons the reservoirs of the land floods.
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