The grass had improved very much on the banks of the Lachlan.  A vast plain of very firm surface extended southward, but not a tree was visible upon it, while on our side the country was wooded in long stripes of trees.

WALJEERS LAKE.

About seven miles from the camp the river, the general course of which had been for several days about south-west, turned southward; and we came in sight of Waljeers.  The natives had for some days told us of Waljeers, which proved to be the bed of a lake nearly circular and about four miles in circumference.  It was perfectly dry, but in wet seasons it must be a fine sheet of water.  As we approached its banks I observed that the surface, which was somewhat elevated above the country nearer the river, consisted of firm red soil with large bushes of atriplex, mesembryanthemum, and other shrubs peculiar to that kind of surface, which is so common on the left bank of the Bogan.

TRIGONELLA SUAVISSIMA.

The whole expanse of the lake was at this time covered with the richest verdure and the perfumed gale which: 

fanned the cheek and raised the hair, Like a meadow breeze in spring,

heightened the charm of a scene so novel to us.  I soon discovered that this fragrance proceeded from the plant resembling clover which we found so excellent as a vegetable during the former journey.* A young crop of it grew in scanty patches near the shores of the lake, and I recognised it with delight, as it seems the most interesting of Australian plants.  The natives here called it Calomba and told us that they eat it.  Barney said it grew abundantly at Murroagin after rain.  It seems to spring up only on the richest of alluvial deposits, in the beds of lagoons during the limited interval between the recession of the water and the desiccation of the soil under a warm sun.** Exactly resembling new mown hay in the perfume which it gives out even when in the freshest state of verdure, it was indeed sweet to sense and lovely to the eye in the heart of a desert country.  When at sea off Cape Leeuwin in September 1827, after a three months’ voyage and before we made the land, I was sensible of a perfume from the shore which this plant recalled to my recollection.

(Footnote.  Trigonella suavissima, Volume 1.)

(**Footnote.  On leaving Sydney for this expedition I placed in charge of Mr. McLeay, colonial secretary, the first specimen of this plant produced by cultivation.  It grew luxuriantly in a flower-pot from seeds brought from the Darling where it was discovered.  Volume 1.)

In the bed of Waljeers we again found the Agristis virginica of Linnaeus,* and an Echinochloa allied to E. crusgalli, two kinds of very rich grass; but most of the verdure in the middle of the bed consisted of a dwarf species of Psoralea which grew but thinly.** Hibiscus was also springing very generally.  The bed of this lake had been full of the freshwater mussel; and under a canoe (which I took away in the carts) were several large crayfish dead in their holes.  Dry and parched as the bed of the lake then was, the natives found nevertheless live freshwater mussels by digging to a substratum of sand.  I understood that they also find this shell alive in the same manner, in the dry bed of the Lachlan.