334 CHARACTER OF THE RIVER BOGAN. [CH. VIII. 



must sometimes be an important tributary. The ground sepa- 

 rating these waters, which must travel tow^ards the distant 

 channels of such spjicious basins as those of the Lachlan and 

 Darling, consists here only of some low hills of trap-rock, con- 

 nected with gently sloping ridges of mica schist. The country 

 on the Goobang or Lachlan side appears to be the best ; for 

 the grass grows there much more abundantly, and the beds 

 of the streams appear to be much more retentive. All the 

 water, which we had used during five months, belonged to 

 the basin of the Darling, but to-day we again tasted of that 

 from channels which led towards the Lachlan. The chief 

 sources of the Bogan arise in Hervey's range, and also in 

 that much less elevated country, situated between the Lach- 

 lan and the Macquarie. The uniformity of the little river 

 Bogan, from its spring to its junction with the Darling, is 

 very remarkable. In a course of 250 miles, no change is 

 observable in the character of its banks, or the breadth of 

 its bed, neither are the ponds near its source, less numerous 

 or of less magnitude than those, near its junction with the 

 principal stream. Mr. Dixon estimated the velocity of the 

 current at four miles per hour, where its course is most 

 westerly. There are few or no pebbles in its bed, and no 

 reeds grow upon the banks, which are generally sloping, and 

 of naked earth, but marked with lines of flood, similar to 

 those of the Darling. It has often second banks, and, as 

 near that river, a belt of dwarf eucalypti, box, or rough 

 gum, encloses the more stately flooded gum-trees with the 

 shining white bark, which grow on the immediate borders 

 of the river. It has also its plains along the banks, some of 

 them being very extensive ; but the soil of these is not only 

 much firmer, but is also clothed with grass and fringed with 

 a finer variety of trees and bushes, than those of the Darling. 

 Yet in the grasses, there is not such wonderfid variety as I 

 found in those on the banks of that river. Of twenty-six 

 different kinds gathered by me there, I found only four on 

 the Bogan, and not more than four other varieties, through- 

 out the whole course. It appeared, that where land was 



