CH. VIII.] RESULT OF HIS SURVEY. 325 



and he had traced this channel to a large lagoon, near the 

 INIacquarie, the bed of which was found to be quite dry. 

 Many small water-courses led from the Macquarie into 

 Duck creek, which indeed appeared to be the lowest chan- 

 nel of this river, the general fall of the country being to the 

 westward. The identity of the two channels was further 

 established by the quartzose sand found in both. It appears, 

 that a low range of firm ground separates the Bogan from 

 Duck creek, the bed of which, and all the land between it 

 and the Macquarie, consists of an alluvial soil altogether 

 different, according to Mr. Larmer, from any we had seen 

 on the Darlino;. This surface was covered with a luxuriant 

 green crop of grass, a sight which Ave had not enjoyed on 

 this journey, and there were also numerous kangaroos and 

 emus, for whose absence from the plains of the Bogan, we 

 could not previously account. 



Mr. Larmer's men were still seven miles behind him, 

 and had had no water since they left the Macquarie two days 

 previously, nor much to eat, for they had carried rations for 

 seven days only, and this was the ninth since they quitted 

 the camp. We, therefore, sent back a man with a loaf and 

 a kettle of water, and he met them four miles behind the 

 party. We continued the journey four miles beyond our 

 old camp, to a pond which the overseer had found, and was 

 then tlie nearest water to our former position. To this pond 

 the cattle came on tolerably well, after having travelled 

 fourteen miles, and having passed the previous night almost 

 without water. The party was at length reunited here ; and 

 we had now passed the so much dreaded long dry part of 

 the bed of the Bogan. An old native and a boy, apparently 

 belonging to the Myall tribes, came in the evening, but we 

 could learn nothing from them. They w'ere covered with 

 pieces of blanket, and the man used a Scotch bonnet as a 

 bag. They said they had been to Buckenba where there 

 were five white men. In the bed of the river, where I went 

 this evening to enjoy the sight of the famished cattle drink- 



