EXTENSIVE PLAINS. 
47 
day of rest, to fix our position more truly than we could other- 
wise have done. We accordingly pitched our tents under 
some lofty gum-trees, opposite to the plain, and close upon 
the edge of the sandy beach of the river. Before they were 
turned out, the animals were carefully examined, and the 
pack-saddles overhauled, that they might undergo any ne- 
cessary repairs. The river fell considerably during the 
night, but it poured along a vast body of water, possessing a 
strong current. The only change I remarked in it was that 
it now had a bed of sand, and was generally deeper on one 
side than on the other. It kept a very uniform breadth of 
from 150 to 170 feet — and a depth of from 4 to 20. Its 
channel, though occasionally much encumbered with fallen 
timber.' was large enough to contain twice the volume of 
water then in it, but it had outer and more distant banks, 
the boundaries of the alluvial flats, to confine it within 
certain limits, during the most violent floods, and to prevent 
its inundating the country. 
With a view to examine the plain opposite to us, I direct- 
ed our horses to be taken across the river early in the 
morning, and after breakfast, M/Leay and I swam across 
after them. We found the current strong, and could not 
keep a direct line over the channel, but were carried below 
the place at which we plunged in. We proceeded after- 
wards in a direction W. S. W. across the plain for five ox- 
six miles, before we saw trees on the opposite extremity, at 
a still greater distance. We thus found ourselves in the 
centre of an area of from 26 to 30 miles. It appeared to be 
