I had a short time previously cleared all woods and trees, and was now in the midst of reeds of great height.  After proceeding onwards for about eight miles from the place whence I started, my course was suddenly and unexpectedly checked; I saw reeds before me, and expected I was about to turn an angle of the river, but I found that I had got to the end of the channel, and that the river itself had ceased to exist.  Confounded at such a termination to a stream, whose appearance justified the expectation that it would have led me through the heart of the marsh to join Mr. Hume, I commenced a most minute examination of the place, and discovered two creeks, if they deserve the name, branching, the one to the north-west, and the other to the north-east; after tracing the former a short distance, I reached its termination, and in order to assure myself that such was the case, I walked round the head of it by pushing through the reeds; it being then too dark to continue where I was, I returned to a place on the river, at which I had rested during a shower, and slept there.  In the morning I again went to the spot to examine the north-eastern branch, when I was equally disappointed.  I then examined the space between the two creeks, opposite to the main channel of the river, and where the bank receives the force of the current.  Here I saw water in the reeds, but it was scarcely ankle deep, and was running off to the north-west quicker than the waters of the river, which had almost an imperceptible motion, I was therefore at once convinced that it was not permanent, but had lodged there in the night, during which much rain had fallen.  I next pushed my way through the reeds into the marsh, and at length clearly perceived that the waters which were perfectly sweet, after running several courses, flowed off to the north, towards which point there was an apparent declination or dip.  Finding it impossible to proceed further, I regained the boat, and thence returned to the camp, under a conviction that I had reached the very spot, at which Mr. Oxley lost the channel of the river in 1818.

The next day I moved to the place where Mr. Hume had struck upon the channel of the river, but was again doubtful in what direction to proceed.

The marsh, at the commencement of which we now found ourselves, being the third from Mount Foster, but the second great one, seemed to extend beyond us to the north for many miles, but varying in breadth.  In the evening I went in the boat up the channel, and found it at first, deep and sullen, as that of the river above.  It soon however, narrowed, and the weeds formed over its surface, so that I abandoned the boat and walked along a path up it.  I had not gone far when the channel divided; two smaller channels came, the one from the southern, and the other from the western parts of the marsh into it.  There was an evident declination where they were, and it was at their junction the river again rallied and formed.  On my return to the camp, Mr. Hume and I went down the river, but found that about a mile it lost itself, and spread its waters ever the extensive marsh before it.