October 28.  A clay-pan on the plains. . .Camp 44.

October 29.  Torowoto Swamp...Camp 45. 
   Latitude, 30 degrees 1 minute 30 seconds south;
   longitude, 142 degrees 27 minutes east.

. . .

October 30, 1860.  Forwarded.

R. O’HARA Burke, Leader.

Dr. Macadam, Secretary, Exploring Expedition.

. . .

From Mr. Wills, second in command, astronomer and surveyor of
THEPARTY.

Surveyor’s report.

The country, Bilbarka and Tolarno, in the immediate vicinity of the eastern bank of the River Darling, presents the most barren and miserable appearance of any land that we have yet met with.  It consists chiefly of mud flats, covered with polygonum bushes, box timber, and a few salsolaceous plants, of inferior quality.  Above Tolarno there is a slight improvement, and between Kinchica and Menindie there is some fair grazing country.  All agree in saying that there is fine grazing land back from the river; but the want of water will probably prevent its being occupied, except in a very partial manner, for many years; and I fear that the high sand ridges, twenty to forty feet, and in some cases more than sixty feet above the level of the river banks, will form almost insuperable barriers in the way of any one who may attempt to conduct water from the river by means of canals.  It appears to me, from the information that I have been able to obtain, that the difficulties with which settlers have here to contend arise not so much from the absorbent nature of the soil as from the want of anything to absorb.  This last season is said to have been the most rainy that they have had for several years; yet everything looked so parched up that I should have imagined it had been an exceedingly dry one.

Gales.—­I noticed that the forests for about 30 miles below Menindie had been subjected to severe gales from west-north-west.  This was so striking, that I at first thought it was the effect of a hurricane; but I could find no indications of a whirling force, all the trees and branches lying in the same direction; besides which, they seemed to have been torn down at various times, from the different stages of decay in which they were found; and Mr. Wright has subsequently informed me that almost every spring they have a gale from west-north-west, which lasts but a short time, but carries everything before it.  It is this same strip of country which is said to be more favoured with rain than that lower down.

Sand Drifting.—­One can perceive everywhere in the neighbourhood of Menindie, the effect of the winds in shifting the sand, by the numerous logs in various stages of inhumation.