The soil was yielding, blistered, and uneven; and the claws of cray-fish, together with numerous small shells, were every where collected in the hollows made by the subsiding of the waters, between broad belts of reeds and scrubs of polygonum.

Consultation.

On gaining the point of the wood, we found an absolute check put to our further progress.  We had been moving directly on the great body of the marsh, and from the wood it spread in boundless extent before us.  It was evidently lower than the ground on which we stood; we had therefore, a complete view over the whole expanse; and there was a dreariness and desolation pervading the scene that strengthened as we gazed upon it.  Under existing circumstances, it only remained for us either to skirt the reeds to the northward, or to turn in again upon the river; and as I considered it important to ascertain the direction of the Macquarie at so critical and interesting a point, I thought it better to adopt the latter measure.  We, accordingly, made for the river, and pitched our tents, as at the last station, in the midst of reeds.

There were two points at this time, upon which I was extremely anxious.  The first was as to the course of the river; the second, as to the extent of the marshes by which we had been checked, and the practicability of the country to the northward.

In advising with Mr. Hume, I proposed launching the boat, as the surest means of ascertaining the former, and he, on his part, most readily volunteered to examine the marshes, in any direction I should point out.  It was therefore, arranged, that I should take two men, and a week’s provision with me in the boat down the river; and that he should proceed with a like number of men on an excursion to the northward.

After having given directions as to the regulations of camp during our absence, we separated, on the morning of the 26th for the first time, in furtherance of the objects each had in view.

Boat excursion.

In pulling down the river, I found that its channel was at first extremely tortuous and irregular, but that it held a general N.W. course, and bore much the same appearance as it had done since our descent from Mount Foster.

We had a laborious task in lifting the boat over the trunks of trees that had fallen into the channel of the river or that had been left by the floods, and at length we stove her in upon a sunken log.  The injury she received was too serious not to require immediate repair; and we, therefore, patched her up with a tin plate.  This accident occasioned some delay, and the morning was consumed without our having made any considerable progress.  At length, however, we got into a more open channel.

The river suddenly increased in breadth to thirty-five or forty-five yards, with a depth of from twelve to twenty feet of water.  Its banks shelved perpendicularly down, and were almost on a level with the surface of the stream; and the flood mark was not more than two feet high on the reeds by which they were lined.  We had hitherto passed under the shade of the flooded gum, which still continued on the immediate banks of the river; but, the farther we advanced, the more did we find these trees in a state of decay, until at length they ceased, or were only rarely met with.