Mr. O’Brien had been kind enough to send one of the natives who frequented his station to escort us to his more advanced station upon the Morumbidgee.  Had it not been for the assistance we received from this man, I should have had but little leisure for other duties:  as it was however, there was no fear of the party going astray.  This gave M’Leay and myself an opportunity of ascending Pouni, for the purpose of taking bearings; and how ever warm the exertion of the ascent made us, the view from the summit of the hill sufficiently repaid us, and the cool breeze that struck it, although imperceptible in the forest below, soon dried the perspiration from our brows.  The scenery around us was certainly varied, yet many parts of it put me forcibly in mind of the dark and gloomy tracks over which my eye had wandered from similar elevations on the former journey.  This was especially the case in looking to the north, towards which point the hills forming the right of the valley by which we had entered the plains, decreased so rapidly in height that they were lost in the general equality of the more remote country, almost ere they had reached abreast of my position.  From E.S.E. to W.S.W. the face of the country was hilly, broken and irregular; forming deep ravines and precipitous glens, amid which I was well aware the Morumbidgee was still struggling for freedom; while mountains succeeded mountains in the back-ground, and were themselves overtopped by lofty and very distant peaks.  To the eastward, however, the hills wore a more regular form, and were lightly covered with wood.  The plains occupied the space between them and Pouni; and a smaller plain bore N.N.E. which, being embosomed in the forest, had hitherto escaped our notice.

We overtook the party just as it cleared the open ground through which it had previously been moving.  A barren scrub succeeded it for about eight miles.  The soil in this scrub was light and sandy.

We stopped for the night at the head of a valley that seemed to have been well trodden by cattle.  The feed, therefore, was not abundant, nor was the water good.  We had, however, made a very fair journey, and I was unwilling to press the animals.  But in consequence, I fancy, of the scarcity of food, they managed to creep away during the night, with the exception of three or four of the bullocks, nor should we have collected them again so soon as we did, or without infinite trouble, had it not been for our guide and my black boy.  We unavoidably lost a day, but left our position on the 23rd, for Underaliga, a station occupied by Doctor Harris, the gentleman I have already had occasion to mention.  We reached the banks of the creek near the stock hut, about 4 p.m., having journeyed during the greater part of the day through a poor country, partly of scrub and partly of open forest-land, in neither of which was the soil or vegetation fresh or abundant.  At about three miles from Underaliga, the country entirely changed its character, and its flatness was succeeded by a broken and undulating surface.  The soil upon the hills was coarse and sandy, from the decomposition of the granite rock that constituted their base.  Nevertheless, the grass was abundant on the hills, though the roots or tufts were far apart; and the hills were lightly studded with trees.