BY HON. A. NORTON, M.L.C. 89^ 



height ; and, in addition to all this, millions of small black flies 

 pestered one's life from the early dawn until night closed in. My 

 labours, however, had by no means come to an end, even tempo- 

 rarily. I was disappointed at finding no letters and had therefore 

 to go to the nearest postoffice, which was at Walgett, according to 

 instructions. Walgett, which was then a ''paper" township, 

 is situated on the Namoi, at its junction with the Barwon, about 

 200 miles from Tooralle. I rode back to Prinibougyra with 

 Dowling on the day after my arrival at Tooralle, and on the follow- 

 ing day, he having found me a fresh horse, I retraced xny steps up 

 the Biirwoti. That night I camped above the Gidya, and next 

 day reached Shannon's, having pulled up just long enough for a 

 snack of the usual dainty bush fare at Bunnawarnah. 

 Shannon found me another horse, and next day I pushed on to 

 Nulcumbiddy, where I spent the night. My horse was of course,, 

 hobbled, there being no paddocks at any of the stations. Next 

 morning I had to walk five miles back along the road I had 

 come before I overtook him. That night I stopped at Bree. 

 It was an exceedingly rough shop. The hut was dirty in the 

 extreme, the two men who occupied it were equally so, and, 

 horrible thought ! How could the food which they handled and 

 cooked be cleaner than themselves ? As for sleeping, one might 

 as well have tried to sleep on an antbed, and there the company 

 would have been less objectionable. I was glad enough 

 about mid-day on the following day to accept the more cleanly 

 hospitality of Breewun, also a stockman's hut, and after a thirty- 

 five miles ride came to Mooraby in the evening. Here was a 

 store, and a respectable white woman presided over the establish- 

 ment and kept everything clean. That morning I had crossed a 

 narrow, dry watercourse, a mere channel for the flow of water 

 when there was any to flow. This was the Macquarie River, 

 the strength of which had become exhausted as it passed through 

 the level country west of Dubbo. Next day, after riding thirty 

 miles, I struck the township in time for dinner. The Namoi,. 

 like the Macquarie, was quite a narrow watercourse, very 

 different from the fine river which bears that name where the 

 Peel River unites with it below Tamworth ; however, it had 

 plenty of water in it, more than enough for the inhabitants of 

 the one broken -backed hut which was used as a store, a post 

 office, and a dwelling combined, and constituted the township. 



As I had come so I returned, except that as I rode carelessly 

 away amongst the ill-defined roads after starting from Walgett, 



