DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE PLAINS OF THE DARLING AND BOGAN.

On reaching our old encampment we discovered new beauty in the plains on the Bogan when compared with those on the banks of the Darling.  There we dreaded plains, the surface being soft and uneven.  Here on the contrary they delighted the eye with their great levelness, while the firmer surface was no less agreeable to the foot.  The grass also had been so cleanly burnt off that the surface resembled a floor, and although such a piece of perfect level country, extending for miles, was by no means a common feature, it was perhaps more striking to us, on coming from the soft plains, on account of its firmness, neither hoofs nor wheels leaving any impression upon it.  The two men came in with the stray bullock soon after the tents were pitched, and thus our party was again in a state to move forward.

EXTREME ILLNESS OF ONE OF THE PARTY.

One of the men, Robert Whiting, who had been long afflicted with the black scurvy, continued to get weaker daily; and it seemed very doubtful whether his life could be preserved until we should reach a station where vegetables might be procured.  In other respects he was as well off as if in a hospital; the proper medicines were given to him, he was kept warm in a tent, and on the journey he was conveyed in a covered van.  He was however sinking daily, all his teeth were dropping out, and yet, poor fellow, he had been, when in health, one of the most indefatigable of the party, and had been also with me on my journey to the northward.  He did not look the same man on this occasion from the first setting out; and it was evident that he had brought the disease from an ironed gang where it had been prevalent some time before.

NEW YEAR’S RANGE.

August 20.

Following our old route we crossed the extremities of New Year’s range, and at the rocky point where it was first seen by us I obtained bearings on it, and several other heights to the westward which I had seen also from that range.  The sky was obscured this morning by a kind of smoky haze which brought with it a smell of burning grass.  It was evident that either the Macquarie marshes or some other extensive tract to the eastward was on fire, as the wind blew from that quarter.  The obscurity continued during the whole of the day, and the smell also.  As we crossed the plain, which appeared to Captain Sturt like a “broad and rapid river,” the dogs killed an emu, and thus we were now pretty well supplied with fresh meat.  We at length encamped where we first came to the creek, after descending from New Year’s range, having found a good pond there.

A THUNDERSTORM.

August 21.