88 NOTES OF TRAVEL — 1859-60 



occasion caught sight of blacks who would hold no communica- 

 tion with me. 



Near Haraden was a stony hill called Mount Druid. It 

 was formed of loose stones which gave forth a metallic sound 

 when struck together ; the height of this mass of rock in an 

 almost stoneless country, which for hundreds of miles is a dead 

 level, was I should think about 300 feet. Oxley's Tableland 

 showed up in the distance, but the course of the Bogan River, 

 which lay between Mount Druid and it, could not be distin- 

 guished from its summit. There was capital feed for the 

 horses on the Barwon at Shannon's, although the country 

 away from the river banks was as dry as tinder, and 

 I gave them two days' rest before continuing my 

 journey ; we then crossed the river and followed it down on its 

 right bank. Our journey that day was 25 miles, and in 45 

 miles on the next day we reached Perry and Dowling's station, 

 passing a stockman's hut at the Gidya, and one called Bunna- 

 warnah, the only habitations between it and Haraden. Dowling, 

 who was an old schoolfellow of mine, gladly welcomed me to 

 Prinibougyra, and accompanied me to Tooralle next evening- 

 The distance was 22 miles, and in consequence of the intense 

 heat and the myriads of tormenting flies, we did not start till 

 sunset. The river for many miles — in fact from the time I 

 struck it just below the point where Marra creek empties into it 

 — flows through vast plains with here and there patches of box 

 forest, which is as level as the plains ; there are great scrubs of 

 niulga [Acacia ancura) back from the river. Often our journeys 

 were made by night, for even where there were no well defined 

 roads little difticulty was experienced in keeping the right course, 

 I was told of the cold weather which prevailed during the 

 winter months ; all the months were summer, and extremely 

 hot summer, while I was there. 



We arrived at Tooralle about 9 p.m., on 8th October. I 

 had then travelled about 626 miles in twenty seven days, two of 

 which I spent with Shannon at Haraden. On the Blue Moun- 

 tains we had sleety weather, and snow as we approached Ba- 

 thurst, but after passing Dubbo the heat began to be oppressive, 

 and the last part of the journey was most trying. There was 

 almost no break in the heat, and the hot winds were almost con- 

 tinuous: whirlwinds rushed across the plains raising immense 

 clouds of dust and rubbish, chiefly dry rolly-polly bushes, which 

 careered along in columns often more than a hundred feet in 



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