CH. IV.] oxley's table-land. 211 



and imparted a mildness to the air, while picturesque clouds 

 in the western sky, led " active fancy" into still finer regions 

 under them. 



We finally encamped on a plain about a mile from the 

 Bog-an, where the highest of Oxley's Table-laud bore 250° 

 from north, being distant eighteen miles. We had now reached 

 a better country for grass, than we had seen since we left 

 Buree ; and there was still a verdure in the blade and stalk, 

 as well as a fulness in the tufts, which looked well for our 

 poor cattle, after a continuous journey of sixteen days. 



May "21.— The party halted in this plain, while Mr. 

 Larmer went to Oxley's Table-land, to ascertain if the swamp 

 there contained water. Having to take some observations, 

 and bring up an arrear of various other matters, I could not 

 then visit that hill, thouo-h I wished much to do so. I found 

 its latitude to be 30° 11' \b" S., and the longitude 146° 16' 

 9'' E. The extreme lowness of the country, and of the bed 

 of the Bogan, which was now, according to the barometer, 

 near the level of the sea, left little room to doubt, that the 

 Darling could be much above that level. Mr. Larmer's 

 report, on returning in the evening, after a ride of forty 

 miles, was by no means in favour of Oxley's Table-land, as 

 a place even of temporary encampment, there being no 

 longer any swamp containing water ; on the contrary, the 

 only water that he could discover about the hill, after much 

 search on and around it, was a small spring in a hollow 

 on the northern side. His account of the surroundino- 

 country was equally unfavourable, for he stated, that it 

 was very brushy, and without good grass. Now, it was 

 obvious, that had we, according to a suggestion sent to the 

 government by Captain Sturt, proceeded on the 20th of 

 May to Oxley's Table-land, trusting to find abundance of 

 water, the loss of our cattle would have been inevitable. 

 To have reached that jjoint we must have made one long 

 day's journey, and the distance thence to the nearest part of 

 the Bogan, could not have been accomplished in another. 



p 2 



