Miscellaneo us Intelligence. 131 



' 



ed Travels in Tropical Australia, gives the following graphic account 

 of a flood in the Macquarie : 



u 13th February. — I was again laid up with the maladie du pays 

 sore eyes. Mr. Stephenson took a ride for me to the summit of 

 Mount Foster, and to various cattle-stations about its base, wiih some 

 questions, to which I required answers, about the river and stations on 

 it lower down. But no one could tell what the western side of the 

 marshes was like, as no person had passed that way ; the country being 

 more open on the eastern side, where only the stations were situated ; 

 Mr. Kinghorne's, at Graway, about five miles from our camp, being 

 the lowest down on the west bank. Mr. Stephenson returned early, 

 having met two of the mounted police. To my most important ques- 

 tion — What water was to be found lower down in the river ? the reply 

 was very satisfactory, namely, c Plenty, and a flood coming down from 

 the Turon mountains.' The two policemen said they had travelled 

 twenty miles with it on the day previous, and that it would still take 

 some time to arrive near our camp. About noon the drays arrived in 

 good order, having been encamped where there was no water, about 

 six miles short of our camp ; the whole distance travelled, from Can- 

 nonba to the Macquarie, having been about nineteen miles. In the 

 afternoon two of the men, taking a walk up the river, reported, on their 

 return, that the flood poured in upon them, when in the river-bed, so 

 suddenly, that they narrowly escaped it. Still the bed of the Macqua- 

 rie before our camp continued so dry and silent, that I could scarcely 

 believe the flood coming to be real, and so near to us, who had been 

 put to so many shifts for want of water. Towards evening, I siationed 

 a man with a gun a little way up the river, with orders to fire on the 

 flood's appearance, that I might have time to run to the part of the 

 channel nearest to our camp, and witness what I had so much wished to 

 see, as well from curiosity as urgent need. The shades of evening 

 came, however, but no flood ; and the man on the look-out returned to 

 the camp. Some hours later and after the moon had risen, a murmur- 

 ing sound like that of a distant waterfall, mingled with occasional cracks 

 as of breaking timber, drew our attention, and I hastened to the river- 

 bank. By very slow degrees the sound grew louder, and at length so 

 audible, as to draw various persons besides from the camp to the river- 

 side. Still no flood appeared, although its approach was indicated by 

 the occasional rending of trees with a loud noise. Such a phenome- 

 non, in a most serene moonlight night, was quite new to us all. At 

 'ength, the rushing sound of waters and loud cracking of timber, an- 

 nounced that the flood was in the next bend. It rushed into our sight, 

 glittering in the moonbeams, a moving cataract, tossing before it ancient 

 trees, and snapping them against Us banks. It was preceded by a 

 Point of meandering water, picking its way, like a thing oflife, through 

 the deepest parts of the dark, dry, and shady bed, of what thus again 

 became a flowing river. By my party, situated as we were at that time, 

 beating about the country, and impeded in our journey, solely by the 

 almost total absence of water, suffering excessively from thirst and ex- 

 treme heat, I am convinced the scene never can be forgotten. Here 

 came at once abundance, the product of storms in the far-off mountains 

 that overlooked our homes. My first impulse was to have welcomed 







