Mr. Oxley’s opinions.

Having conversed frequently with Mr. Oxley on the subject of his expeditions, I went into the interior prepossessed in favour of his opinions, nor do I think he could have drawn any other conclusion than that which he did, from his experience of the terminations of the rivers whose courses he explored.  Had Mr. Oxley advanced forty, or even thirty miles, farther than he did, to the westward of Mount Harris; nay, had he proceeded eight miles in the above direction beyond the actual spot from which he turned back, he would have formed other and very different opinions of the probable character of the distant interior.  But I am aware that Mr. Oxley performed all that enterprise, and perseverance, and talent could have performed, and that it would have been impracticable in him to have attempted to force its marshes in the state in which he found them.  It was from his want of knowledge of their nature and extent, that he inferred the swampy and inhospitable character of the more remote country, a state in which subsequent investigation has found it not to be.  The marsh of the Macquarie is nothing more than an ordinary marsh or swamp in another country.  However large a space it covers, it is no more than a concavity or basin for the reception of the waters of the river itself, nor has it any influence whatever on the country to the westward of it, in respect to inundation; the general features of the latter being a regular alternation of plain and brush.  These facts are in themselves sufficient to give a fresh interest to the interior of the Australian continent, and to increase its importance.

Capt.  King’s opinions.

With respect to that part of its coast at which the rivers falling from the eastern mountains, discharge themselves, it is a question of very great doubt.  It seems that Capt.  King, in consequence of some peculiarities in the currents at its N.W. angle, supports Mr. Cunningham’s opinion as to their probable discharge in that quarter.  But I fear the internal structure of the continent is so low, as to preclude the hopes of any river reaching from one extremity of it to the other.  A variety of local circumstances, as the contraction of a channel, a shoal sea, or numerous islands, influence currents generally, but more especially round so extensive a continent as that of which we are treating; nor does it strike me that any observations made by Capt.  King during his survey, can be held to bear any connection with the eastern ranges, or their western waters.  It may, however, be said, that as the course of the Darling is still involved in uncertainty, the question remains undecided; but it appears to me, the discovery of that river has set aside every conjecture (founded on previous observation) respecting the main features of the interior lying to the westward of the Blue Mountains.  Both Mr. Oxley and Mr. Cunningham drew their conclusions from