The Castlereagh seemed to have increased in size below the creek, but still it had no resemblance to a river.  We had not proceeded very far down its banks, on the 18th, when we crossed a broad footpath leading to it from the interior.  I turned my horse to the left, and struck upon a long sheet of water, from which I startled a number of pelicans.  It was evident that the natives had recently been in the neighbourhood, but we thought it probable they might have been a hunting party, who had returned again to the plains.  The whole track we passed over during the day was miserably poor and bare of vegetation, nor did the appearance of the country to the N.E. indicate any improvement.  We lost the traces of the natives immediately after crossing their path or beat, and again found the bed of the river dry, after we had passed the sheet of water to which it led.  The soil was so rotten and yielding, that the team knocked up early; indeed, it was a matter of surprise to me that they should not have failed before.  The river made somewhat to the westward with little promise of improvement.  The wretched appearance of the country as we penetrated into it, damped our spirits; we pressed on, however, with difficulty, over ground that was totally destitute of vegetation.  Instead of lofty timber and a living stream, we wandered along the banks of an insignificant watercourse, and under trees of stunted size and scanty foliage.  We stopped on the 20th at the angle of a creek, in which there was some dry grass, in consequence of the animals being almost in a starving state, but even here they had but little to eat.

A violent thunder-storm passed over us in the afternoon, but it made no change in the temperature of the air.  The weather, although it had been hot and sultry, had fallen far short of the intense heat we experienced in crossing the marshes of the Macquarie, when it was such as to melt the sugar in the canisters, and to destroy all our dogs; and our nights were now become agreeably cool.

A party of natives.

We still, however, continued to travel over a dead level, nor was a height or break visible from the loftiest trees we ascended.  A little before we stopped at the creek, we surprised a party of natives; old men, women, and children.  They were preparing dinners of fish in much larger quantities than they could have devoured—­probably for a part of the tribe that were absent; but the moment they saw us they fled, and left every thing at our mercy.  On examining the fish, we found them totally different from any in the Macquarie, and took two of the most perfect to preserve.  In the afternoon one of the men came to inform me that the tribe was coming down upon us.