May 12.

It had rained heavily during the night so that water was no longer scarce.  The canoe brought from Waljeers had been placed to receive the rain and conduct it into a cask which was thus filled.

TWO MEN MISSING.

On getting up I learnt that two men had set off in quest of water and had been absent all night.  That they should have taken this step without first asking permission was wrong, but that nobody had mentioned the circumstance to me till then was still more vexatious as, by firing shots and throwing up rockets, these men might have found their way back in the dark.  I was very glad however to hear them at length answer our shots, and not at all sorry to see them come in thoroughly drenched with the empty kettles on their shoulders.  After this I learnt, when we were about to start, that six of the bullocks had got away; Piper however managed to trace and bring them back.  The weather then cleared up and we proceeded, in a south-west direction as nearly as patches of scrub permitted, in search of the Murrumbidgee; for I was then convinced, from the different appearance of the country, that we had got beyond the junction of the Lachlan.  On passing the scrubs we crossed a plain of the same kind which we had so often met.  It sloped towards a belt of large trees in a flat, where we also saw reeds, the ground there being very soft and heavy for the draught animals.  Passing this flat we again reached firm ground with stately yarra trees; and charming vistas through miles of open forest scenery had indeed nearly drawn me away from the bearing which was otherwise most likely to hit the river.

REACH THE MURRUMBIDGEE.

I however continued to follow it and, in the midst of such scenery without being at all aware that I was approaching a river, I suddenly saw the water before me and stood at last on the banks of the Murrumbidgee.

This magnificent stream was flowing within eight feet of its banks with considerable rapidity, the water being quite clear; and it really exceeded so much my expectations (surpassing far the Darling and all the Australian rivers I had then seen) that I was at first inclined to think it could be nothing less than the Murray which, like the Darling, might have been laid down too far to the west.  At all events I was delighted to find that this corner of Australia could supply at least one river worthy of the name.  After thirsting so long amongst the muddy holes of the Lachlan I witnessed, with no slight degree of satisfaction, the jaded cattle drinking at this full and flowing stream, resembling a thing of life in its deep and rippling waters.  Now at length there was an end to the privations we had so often suffered from want of water; and the bank was also clothed with excellent grass—­a pleasing sight for the cattle.  Reeds appeared in patches back from the river but, unlike the banks of the Darling, the best and clearest ground was on the immediate margin of the Murrumbidgee.