MUSCLE BEND. 71 



from south-east to north-west. At nine, having set 

 the watches for the night, we lay down to sleep, and 

 passed a quiet night with a temperature of 85", and 

 a north-west wind. 



November 9. — We started early the following 

 morning, after having obtained a set of bearings, and 

 followed the bank of the river to the north-west for 

 half a mile, then forded it and took a north-easterly 

 direction, passing close to the foot of some hills 

 forming the south side of the valley of the river, 

 which at this place is scarcely a mile wide. High 

 table land formed the west side of it, and low broken 

 ranges trending east, bounded it in that direction. 

 The bend above where we slept we called Muscle 

 Bend, from our finding several there : they ap- 

 peared similar to those found by Oxley in the Mac- 

 quarie. The country over which we travelled the 

 first part of the day was exceedingly stony, and wore 

 a most ^uninviting appearance. 



While the party halted to skin a kangaroo I had 

 been so fortunate as to shoot ; 1 ascended the top of 

 a neighbouring hill to make a sketch, and get some 

 bearinors. From this elevation I traced the river 

 in a north-west direction for three miles, and I 

 gazed with rapture, only known to the discoverer, 

 upon a clear and magnificent expanse of water, yet 

 greatly dismayed at its northerly direction. To the 

 north-east was an extensive and apparently alluvial 

 flat; while to the westward, the high land approached 

 the river. It is worth v of remark, that so far as our 



