AND OF THE RIVER BANKS. 
93 
bidgee and the Macquarie. Notwithstanding the aspect of 
the country which I have described, no positive change had 
as yet taken place in the general feature of the interior. 
The river continued to flow in a direction somewhat to the 
northward of west, through a country that underwent no 
perceptible alteration. Its waters, confined to their imme- 
diate bed, swept along considerably below the level of its 
inner banks ; and the spaces between them and the outer 
ones, though generally covered with reeds, seemed not re- 
cently to have been flooded ; while on the other hand, they 
had, in many places, from successive depositions, risen to a 
height far above the reach of inundation. Still, however, 
the more remote interior maintained its sandy and sterile 
character, and stretched away, in alternate plain and wood, 
to a distance far beyond the limits of our examination. 
About the 21st, a very evident change took place in it. 
The banks of the river suddenly acquired a perpendicular 
and water-worn appearance. Their summits were perfectly 
level, and no longer confined by a secondary embankment, 
but preserved an uniform equality of surface back from the 
stream. These banks, although so abrupt, were not so 
high as the upper levels, or secondary embankments. They 
indicated a deep alluvial deposit, and yet, being high above 
the reach of any ordinary flood, were covered with grass, 
under an open box forest, into which a moderately dense 
scrub occasionally penetrated. We had fallen into a con- 
cavity similar to those of the marshes, but successive depo- 
sitions had almost filled it, and no longer subject to in- 
