CH. v.] RESULTS OF THE JOURNEY. 219 



man, a piece of my sword blade, and to another, a tomahawk, 

 which he carefully wrapt in the paper in which I had kept it, 

 and he seemed much pleased with his present. They pointed 

 to the west, as the general course of the river. 



The results of our journey thus far, were, first, the survey 

 of the Bogan, nearly from its sources to its junction with the 

 Darling. This, I considered no trifling addition to Australian 

 geography ; for the knowledge of the actual course of a long 

 river, however diminutive the channel, may often determine 

 to a great extent, the character of the country, through which 

 it passes. In the present instance, it may be remarked, 

 that had Captain Sturt considered the course of this river, 

 when he named the lower part of it " New-Year's Creek," 

 the idea, that the plains, which he saw to the southward of 

 New-Year's range, formed the " channel of a broad and 

 rapid river," never could have occurred to him ; for the 

 basin of the Bogan being bounded on the west, by a succes- 

 sion of low hills, no other river could have been reasonably 

 looked for, in such a direction. Again, the connexion of that 

 chain of low hills, with the higher lands of the colony, being 

 thus indicated by the course of the Bogan ; it is not probable, 

 that this traveller, had he been aware of the fact, would have 

 described New-Year's range, which is about the last of these 

 hills, as " ih^ first elevation in the interior of Eastern Aus- 

 tralia, to the westward of Mount Harris." On the contrary, 

 the divergent lines of the Bogan and the Lachlan, might 

 rather have been supposed to include a hilly country, which, 

 increasing in height, in proportion as its breadth thus be- 

 came greater, would naturally form that high ground so 

 likely to separate the Upper Darling from the valley of the 

 Murray. 



2ndly. The continuous course of the Bogan into the Dar- 

 ling being thus at length determined. Duck creek, a deeper 

 chain of ponds in the level country nearer to the Macquarie, 

 could only be considered the final channel for the waters of 

 that river, in their course towards the Darling ; and it only 



