28 
THE MORUMBIDGEE. 
our animals revelled amid the most luxuriant pasture. Only 
in one place did the sandy superficies upon the plain indi- 
cate that it was there subject to flood. 
The Morumbidgeefrom Tuggiong to our present encamp- 
ment had held a general S. S.W. course, but from the sum- 
mit of a hill behind the tents it now appeared to be gra- 
dually sweeping round to the westward ; and I could trace 
the line of trees upon its banks, through a rich and exten- 
sive valley in that direction, as far as my sight could reach. 
The country to the S. E. maintained its lofty character, but 
to the westward the hills and ranges were evidently de- 
creasing in height, and the distant interior seemed fast 
sinking to a level. The general direction of the ranges had 
been from N. to S., and as we had been travelling parallel 
to them, their valleys were shut from our view. Now, how- 
ever, several rich and extensive ones became visible, opening 
from the southward into the valley of the Morumbidgee, and, 
as a further evidence of a change of country from a confused 
to a more open one, a plain of considerable size stretched 
from immediately beneath the hill on which I was to the N.W. 
The Morumbidgee itself, from the length and regularity 
of its reaches, as well as from its increased size, seemed to 
intimate that it had successfully struggled through the 
broken country in which it rises, and that it would hence- 
forw'ard meet with fewer interruptions to its course. It 
still, however, preserved all the characters of a mountain 
stream; having alternate rapids and deep pools, being in 
many places encumbered with fallen timber, and generally 
