The natives who had accompanied us from the last tribe left at sunset, as is their custom, after having received two blankets and some knives.  Being anxious to get to Laidley’s Ponds, I started early, with the intention of making a long journey, but circumstances obliged me to halt at six miles.  We crossed extensive and rich flats the whole of the way, and found as usual an abundance of feed for our cattle.  It would perhaps be hazardous to give an opinion as to the probable availability of the flats of the Darling:  those next the stream had numerous herbs, as spinach, indigoferae, clover, etc., all indicative of a better soil; but the out flats were bare of vegetation, although there was no apparent difference in their soil.  One peculiarity is observable in the Darling, that neither are there any reeds growing in its channel or on the flats.

Our journey on the last day of September terminated at noon, as we arrived at a point from which it was evident the river takes a great sweep to the eastward; and Nadbuck informed me that by going direct to the opposite point, where, after coming up again, it turned to the north, we should cut off many miles, but that it would take a whole day to perform the journey.  I determined therefore to follow his advice, and to commence our journey across the bight at an early hour the following morning, the 1st of October.  I availed myself of the remainder of the day to examine the country for some miles to the westward, but there was no perceptible change in it.  The same barren plains, covered sparingly with salsolae and atriplex, characterised this distant part of the interior; and sandy ridges covered with stunted cypress trees, acaciae, hakeae, and other similar shrubs, proved to me that the productions of it were as unchanged as the soil.

As we had arranged, we broke up our camp earlier than usual on the 1st of October, for, from what Nadbuck had stated, I imagined that we had a long journey before us; but after going fifteen miles, we gained the river, and found that it was again trending to the north.  It had now risen more than bank high, and some of its flats were partly covered with water.  We had kept a N.N.W. course the whole day, and crossed hard plains without any impediment; but, although we kept at a great distance from the stream, we did not observe any improvement in the aspect of the country.

Our specimens, both of natural history and botany, were as yet very scanty; but we found a new and beautiful shrub in blossom, on some of the plains as we crossed the bight; and Mr. Browne discovered three nests of a peculiar rat, that have been partially described by Sir Thomas Mitchell.