194 Notes on the 



obtain a good view of the distant interior, but the declining 

 sun and the smoke of bush fires prevented this. At a great 

 distance S. 10° W., I saw what I considered as the Expe- 

 dition Range of Dr. Leichhardt, but it is either a range more 

 to the north, or Expedition range trending round to theN.W. 

 and W. With this exception, the whole view to the westward 

 was like a vast level plain covered with forest, in which the 

 peculiar shade of the brigalow scrub was but too plainly- 

 visible. South west, and distant fifteen or twenty miles, I 

 observed two reaches of water, a portion *L believe of the 

 main channel of the River Mackenzie. Going west from this 

 range, in four miles we came to the River Isaacs ; a fine large 

 ever flowing river, with reaches of water one hundred yards 

 wide, and lined with lofty gum trees. Great floods must 

 pour down this river, which comes from the N.W., as I have 

 never seen in any river the trees on the banks so much torn 

 up and destroyed. The soil here is rich and well grassed, but 

 both banks are very scrubby. There is here an entire 

 change in the geological formation. A sedimentary rock, 

 containing pieces of dark shale, and indicating the presence 

 of lime when touched with acids, slopes at a low angle to the 

 west, in the bed of the Isaacs. 



We followed up the Isaacs for five miles, and crossed it at 

 the junction of another large river, which I think is the flood 

 branch of the Mackenzie. This crossing place and junction 

 of the two rivers is about forty miles west, by compass, from 

 Marlborough. 



Following up the Mackenzie, which comes from the S. W., 

 we entered upon a level country subject to great floods. We 

 ascended this river for one hundred miles, and it is all the 

 same, and is easily described. A winding river, liable to 

 great floods, flows through a level country. Patches of 

 brigalow scrub are never out of sight. There are no open 

 plains, but long strips of openly timbered country, alternat- 

 ing with strips or patches of brigalow scrub. All the open 

 country, at certain periods, is liable to inundation. Flood- 

 channels break away from the river, and cutting off 

 great bends, or curving away from the river for many miles, 

 enter it again ; and beyond their influence scrubs almost 

 invariably exist. The soil is everywhere rich, richest in the 

 scrubs. Grass is everywhere abundant in the open country. 

 Grass and a small variety of saltbush is nearly always abund- 

 ant in the scrubs ; but for which there could be no better 

 pastoral country, and with which it is equal to fatten any 



