After proceeding some miles on this day’s journey our Cudjallagong guide pointed in a west-north-west direction as the way to Oolawambiloa.  Leaving therefore the Kalare or Lachlan, near a great bend in its general course which below this (according to Mr. Oxley’s map) was south-west, we followed the route proposed by my native friend as it was precisely in the direction by which I wished to approach the Darling.  The universal scarcity of water had however deprived me of every hope that any could be found in that country, at a season when we often sought it in vain, even in the bed of one of the large rivers of the country.  Our guide however knew the nature of our wants, and also that of the country, and I eagerly followed him towards a hill, the most distant and most westerly on the northern horizon.

NO WATER.

At sunset we halted full twenty miles short of that hill, beside the bed of a small river, resembling in capacity and the nature of its banks that of the Bogan; but to the manifest consternation of our guide we could find no water in it, although some ponds had been only recently dried up.  This watercourse, he informed me, was the same which I had seen passing by Murrangong, but he said it did not return its waters to the Lachlan, a circumstance which I could not understand.  Booraran was the name he gave it.  He went with some of our people in the dark and found a few quarts of water two miles beyond it, but our cattle were obliged to pass the night without any.  The barometer had been falling for several days and the wind arising suddenly at 9 P.M. brought a misty mass of cloud which began most providentially to drop upon us, to the great relief of our thirsty cattle.  This day we found on the plains a new species of Sida with small yellow flowers, very fragrant, and on a long stalk.* In the woods I observed a eucalyptus of a graceful drooping character, apparently related to E. pilularis and amygdalina.

(Footnote.  S. fibulifera, Lindley manuscripts; incano-tomentosa, pusilla, diffusa, foliis ovato-oblongis obtusis dentatis basi cordatis, stipulis longissimis setaceis, pedunculis axillaribus aggregatis filiformibus petiolis longioribus, calycibus lanatis corolla parum brevioribus, fructu disciformi convexo tomentoso, coccis monospermis.)

NATIVES FROM WARRANARY.

April 21.

A rainy morning.  Some strange natives approached from the woods while I was looking at the country beyond the dry channel, in the direction in which our guide still wished us to proceed (about west-north-west).  They were grave and important-looking old men, and each carried a light.  They called out to me in a serious tone “Weeri kally,” words which I too well understood, meaning simply no water.  I took my guide to them, but he still seemed in doubt about the scarcity.

COURSE DOWN THE LACHLAN RESUMED.