CAPTAIN STURT ON THE MURRAY 69 



unfortunately it was a -season of such exceptional drought, and the 

 river was found to be so salt, that he was unable to prosecute his 

 researches. 



The instructions which Captain Sturt received from the Govern- 

 ment about the end of September, 1829, were to endeavour to trace 

 the Murrumbidgee Biver as far as practicable. Should it unfortun- 

 ately be found to terminate, like the Macquarie, in a dismal swamp, 

 he was to endeavour to regain the banks of the Darling, and follow 

 it down to its outlet or termination. As it was certain that some 

 portion of the journey would have to be performed by water, he 

 was furnished with a substantial whale-boat, twenty-five feet long, 

 capable of carrying two and a half tons of provisions besides the 

 arms and ammunition. This boat was loosely put together in 

 Sydney and then taken to pieces, all her planks and bolts marked 

 and numbered and packed into a convenient size for transport by 

 dray. Hamilton Hume, who had accompanied Captain Sturt on his 

 journey to the Darling, and had proved himself an invaluable assis- 

 tant, was unable to accept the invitation to join him this time, and 

 his place was filled by Mr. George Macleay, a gentleman who was 

 afterwards knighted for political services in the Legislature of New 

 South Wales. With two or three heavily laden drays, a few pack 

 horses and about a dozen trusty able-bodied men, the expedition 

 sallied forth from Sydney on the 3rd of November, and after three 

 weeks' steady travelling amongst the outlying runs of the pioneer 

 " squatters," reached the banks of the Murrumbidgee, a few miles 

 above its junction with the Tumut. Finding great difficulty 

 in following the river course on the south bank, they crossed 

 to the northern side in a roughly improvised punt after the style 

 devised by Hume. Over the dry Biverina Plains, parched and 

 sandy, they made fair progress, passing the sites of the future 

 towns of Gundagai and Wagga Wagga, and encountering numerous 

 bodies of natives, who were generally friendly and ready to give 

 more or less reliable information about the road. As they ap- 

 proached the Lachlan the dreariness of the country grew intoler- 

 able, and oppressed them with the belief that they were entering 

 an uninhabitable desert. Desolation and silence reigned everywhere ; 

 neither beast nor bird was met with, and not a single blade of grass 



