KANGAROOS THERE.

During the day we saw also a great many kangaroos and killed two of them.

ANOTHER HORSE IN THE RIVER.

Notwithstanding every precaution in watering the cattle, and at a place selected too as the best that could be found after a careful examination of two miles of the river, one of the horses fell in; but on this occasion it was safely got out again.  The abundance of water, though a novelty to us, was a source of new trouble and anxiety from the danger our cattle were in of being drowned, owing to the precipitous banks and soft mud of the river.  This peril was indeed so imminent that in the morning it was thought most prudent to water all the horses with a bucket, and not to risk the loss of the bullocks by suffering them to drink at all.

May 18.

Being determined to keep the river in sight, we this day continued our journey along its margin.  I found we could follow the general course without entering bends by travelling at the base of a second bank, which seemed to divide the yarra-tree flats from the scrubby ground behind.

LAGOONS PREFERABLE TO THE RIVER FOR WATERING CATTLE.

We came thus upon some rainwater in the clay of the plains which, being sufficient to satisfy the bullocks, we gladly availed ourselves of the opportunity it afforded of watering them without unyoking.  After proceeding about three miles further we saw a lagoon between us and the Murrumbidgee.  It resembled a bend of the river, and contained abundance of water on which were three pelicans and a number of ducks.  When we had travelled nearly far enough to encamp, we came on two other lagoons of the same kind, similarly situated and both containing water.  The grass being good, I determined to pitch our tents between them, as the cattle might thus be watered for one night at least without the risk of being bogged or drowned.  These lagoons looked like different bends of a river, although we saw the ends of both and passed on firm ground between them.  It was evident however that they could only be supplied by the inundations of the river.  On this day we killed a kangaroo.

HIGH WIND, DANGEROUS IN A CAMP UNDER TREES.

May 19.

During the night the weather was tempestuous; at three A.M. it blew a hurricane and the rain fell heavily afterwards.  I was not sorry when the wind abated for we were so confined for room between the two lagoons that my tent had been pitched, and most of our encampment placed, unavoidably under a large yarra tree, a very unsafe position during high winds, but fortunately no branches fell.  In the morning, after proceeding about a mile, another lagoon lay before us, which was full of water and indeed terminated in the river.  We avoided it by turning to the right and gaining the higher ground above the level of floods.  We continued along this upper land, thus crossing two small plains; but soon after, being apprehensive of