- Completed the necessary papers for the governor's information,
and made all ready to proceed on our journey tomorrow. The river in
these last two days has risen between two and three feet.
June 23. - Having despatched Thomas Thatcher and John Hall to Bathurst,
with an account of our progress, the expedition set forward down the
river. For four or five miles there was no material change in the
general appearance of the country from what it had been on the preceding
days, but for the last six miles the land was very considerably lower,
interspersed with plains clear of timber, and dry. On the banks it was
still lower, and in many parts it was evident that the river floods
swept over them, though this did not appear to be universally the case.
The far greater part of the last six miles was covered with shrubs, and
the acacia pendula. These unfavourable appearances threw a damp upon our
hopes, and we feared that our anticipations had been too sanguine. The
river continued nearly as before, but much narrower, and more winding,
in some measure accounting for the great height of the floods which we
observed fifty or sixty miles back, where the river was probably four
times as wide: we missed with regret the striking characteristics which
had hitherto distinguished it, the sandy and gravelly beaches, and rocky
points; though there was certainly the same volume of water which had
originally given me such strong hopes that it could never be dissipated
over marshes. The banks are no more than twenty feet high in their most
elevated places, and the probability is, that all our doubts,
speculations, and hopes, will be clearly decided within the week; the
soil is of the richest quality, but the flatness of the land, and want
of any eminence, are great drawbacks upon the bounties of nature: not
but there are numerous spaces above the reach of either land or river
flood, which would offer secure retreats to the inhabitants of these
singular regions. Several new birds were seen to-day of very beautiful
plumage; none however were procured, so as to enable me to describe them.
We also saw the crested pigeon, and grey and red parrot of the Lachlan;
some fine and singular plants also enriched our collection: it would seem
as if nature here delighted in wasting her most beautiful productions
upon the "desert air," rather than placing them in situations where
they would become more easily accessible to the researches of science
and taste.
June 24. - The country was still extremely flat, and perfectly overrun
with acacias, dwarf box (eucalyptus), some species of suffruticore
atriplex [See Note at end of this paragraph.], and other shrubs; and
intersected by nunumerous extensive lagoons now quite dry, but which when
the river is about one-third full, convey the water back over vast plains
and levels for the most part clear of every kind of brush, and on the
fall
of the waters these lagoons act as drains to the lands.
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