It is impossible for me to describe the kind of country we were now traversing, or the dreariness of the view it presented.  The plains were still open to the horizon, but here and there a stunted gum-tree, or a gloomy cypress, seemed placed by nature as mourners over the surrounding desolation.  Neither beast nor bird inhabited these lonely and inhospitable regions, over which the silence of the grave seemed to reign.  We had not, for days past, seen a blade of grass, so that the animals could not have been in very good condition.  We pushed on, however, sixteen miles, in consequence of the coolness of the weather.  We observed little change in the river in that distance, excepting that it had taken up a muddy bottom, and lost all the sand that used to fill it.  The soil and productions on the plains continued unchanged in every respect.  From this time to the 22nd, the country presented the same aspect.  Occasional groups of cypress showed themselves on narrow sandy ridges, or partial brushes extended from the river, consisting chiefly of the acacia pendula, the stenochylus, and the nut I have already noticed.  The soil on which they grew was, if possible, worse than that of the barren plain which we were traversing; and their colour and drooping state rendered the desolate landscape still more dreary.

On the 21st, we found the same singular substance(gypsum) embedded in the bank of the river that had been collected, during the former expedition, on the banks of the Darling; and hope, which is always uppermost in the human breast, induced me to think that we were fast approaching that stream.  My observations placed me in 34 degrees 17 minutes 15 seconds S. and 145 degrees of E. longitude.

Black boy deserts.

On the 22nd, my black boy deserted me.  I was not surprised at his doing so, neither did I regret his loss, for he had been of little use under any circumstances.  He was far too cunning for our purpose.  I know not that the term ingratitude can be applied to one in his situation, and in whose bosom nature had implanted a love of freedom.  We learnt from four blacks, with whom he had spoken, and who came to us in the afternoon, that he had gone up the river,—­as I conjectured, to the last large tribe we had left, with whom he appeared to become very intimate.

A creek coming from the N.N.W. here fell into the Morumbidgee; a proof that the general decline of country was really to the south, although a person looking over it would have supposed the contrary.

Country subject to inundation.