Extensive plains.

The country on the opposite side of the river had all the features of that to the north of it, but a plain of such extent suddenly opened upon us to the southward, that I halted at once in order to examine it, and by availing myself of a day of rest, to fix our position more truly than we could otherwise have done.  We accordingly pitched our tents under some lofty gum-trees, opposite to the plain, and close upon the edge of the sandy beach of the river.  Before they were turned out, the animals were carefully examined, and the pack-saddles overhauled, that they might undergo any necessary repairs.  The river fell considerably during the night, but it poured along a vast body of water, possessing a strong current.  The only change I remarked in it was that it now had a bed of sand, and was generally deeper on one side than on the other.  It kept a very uniform breadth of from 150 to 170 feet—­and a depth of from 4 to 20.  Its channel, though occasionally much encumbered with fallen timber, was large enough to contain twice the volume of water then in it, but it had outer and more distant banks, the boundaries of the alluvial flats, to confine it within certain limits, during the most violent floods, and to prevent its inundating the country.

Hamilton’s plains.

With a view to examine the plain opposite to us, I directed our horses to be taken across the river early in the morning, and after breakfast, M’Leay and I swam across after them.  We found the current strong, and could not keep a direct line over the channel, but were carried below the place at which we plunged in.  We proceeded afterwards in a direction W.S.W. across the plain for five or six miles, before we saw trees on the opposite extremity, at a still greater distance.  We thus found ourselves in the centre of an area of from 26 to 30 miles.  It appeared to be perfectly level, though not really so.  The soil upon it was good, excepting in isolated spots, where it was sandy.  Vegetation was scanty upon it, but, on the whole, I should conclude that it was fitter for agriculture than for grazing.  For I think it very probable, that those lands which lie hardening and bare in a state of nature, would produce abundantly if broken up by the plough.  I called this Hamilton’s plains, in remembrance of the surgeon of my regiment.  The Morumbidgee forms its N.E. boundary, and a creek rising on it, cuts off a third part on the western side, and runs away from the river in a southerly direction.  This creek, even before it gets to the outskirts of the plains, assumes a considerable size.  Such a fact would argue that heavy rains fall in this part of the interior, to cut out such a watercourse, or that the soil is extremely loose; but I should think the former the most probable, since the soil of this plain had a substratum of clay.  I place our encampment on the river in latitude 34 degrees 41 minutes 45 seconds S., and in East longitude 146 degrees 50 minutes, the variation of the compass being 6 degrees 10 minutes E.