The cattle found such poor feed around the camp that they strayed away in search of better during the night.  On such an occasion Botheri and his fraternity would have been of real service; but he had decamped at an early hour, and had carried off an axe, a tomahawk, and some bacon, although I had made him several presents.  I was not at all surprised at this piece of roguery, since cunning is the natural attribute of a savage; but I was provoked at their running away at a moment when I so much required their assistance.

Left to ourselves, I found Mr. Hume of the most essential service in tracking the animals, and to his perseverance we were indebted for their speedy recovery, They had managed to find tolerable feed near a serpentine sheet of water, which Mr. Hume thought it would be advisable to examine.  We directed our course to it as soon as the cattle were loaded, moving through bush, and found it to be a very considerable creek that receives a part of the superfluous waters of the Macquarie, and distributes them, most probably, over the level country to the north.  It was much wider than the river, being from fifty to sixty yards across, and is resorted to by the natives, who procure muscles from its bed in great abundance.  We were obliged to traverse its eastern bank to its junction with the river, at which it fortunately happened to be dry.  We had, however, to cut roads down both its banks before we could cross it; and, consequently, made but a short day’s journey.  The soil passed over was inferior to the generality of soil near the river, but we encamped on a tongue of land on which both the flooded-gum and the grass were of luxuriant height.  We found a quantity of a substance like pipe-clay in the bed of the river, similar to that mentioned by Mr. Oxley.

Great heat.

The heat, which had been excessive at Wellington Valley, increased upon us as we advanced into the interior.  The thermometer was seldom under 114 degrees at noon, and rose still higher at 2 p.m.  We had no dews at night, and consequently the range of the instrument was trifling in the twenty-four hours.  The country looked bare and scorched, and the plains over which we journeyed had large fissures traversing them, so that the earth may literally be said to have gasped for moisture.  The country, which above the cataract had borne the character of open forest, excepting on the immediate banks of the river, where its undulations and openness gave it a park-like appearance, or where the barren stony ridges prevailed below that point, generally exhibited alternately plain and brush, the soil on both of which was good.  On the former, crested pigeons were numerous, several of which were shot.  We had likewise procured some of the rose-coloured and grey parrots, mentioned by Mr. Oxley, and a small paroquet of beautiful plumage; but there was less of variety in the feathered race than I expected to find, and most of the other birds we had seen were recognised by me as similar to specimens I had procured from Melville Island, and were, therefore, most probably birds of passage.