A short description of the most remarkable plants collected during the expedition by Mr. Charles Frazier, the government collector, is added to this Journal; and although the result as to the principal object of the expedition has not been answerable to the expectation which was entertained when it set out, yet when the general knowledge obtained of so considerable a portion of this extensive country is considered, it is hoped that it has not been undertaken and performed in vain; and that the field which it has opened to the colonists will be attended with ultimate benefit both to them and to the parent country.

Sydney, July 17, 1819.

JOURNAL OF AN EXPEDITION IN AUSTRALIA—­PART II.

May 20, 1818.  Having received his Excellency the Governor’s instructions for the conduct of the expedition intended to examine the course of the Macquarie River, and every preparation having been made at the depot in Wellington Valley for that purpose, I quitted Sydney in company with Dr. Harris (late of the 102nd foot), and after a pleasant journey, arrived at Bathurst on the 25th.  Our little arrangements having been completed by the 28th, we again set forward with the baggage horses and men that were to compose the expedition.

We at first kept nearly upon the track pursued by us on our return from the first expedition in August last; but on approaching Wellington Valley, keeping a little more to the westward, we avoided much of that steep and rugged road which we then complained of; the country being quite open, the valleys and flats good, the hills limestone rock.  We did not meet with the slightest interruption, and arrived at the depot on the 2nd of June, where we found the boats, etc. in perfect readiness for our immediate reception.

June 4.—­Got all the horses and provisions over to the north side of the river, and made every preparation to pursue our journey on the morrow.  The river rose about a foot during the day.  The accident which had befallen our barometer during the former expedition not being repaired, we are of course deprived of means to make any observations on the height of the country above the sea, otherwise than by careful observation of the several falls or rapids:  I do not think that our station here is much above four hundred feet below the level of Bathurst.

June 5.—­About one o’clock the weather cleared up a little, when Lewis with the boat-builder’s party set out on their return to Bathurst, taking with them three of the worst of the horses, and leaving with us nineteen.  The river rose but little during the day:  it is quite high enough for our purpose.  A new species of fish was caught, having four smellers above and four under the mouth; the hind part of it resembled an eel; it had one dorsal fin, and four other fins, with a white belly; it measured twenty-one inches and a half, and weighed about two pounds three quarters.