Ixxvi MR. OXLF.V’S DISCOVERIES. 
appeared that, its waters were lost in successive 
marshes and it ceased to he a river. In the 
following year he turned towards the Macquarie, 
and traced it, in like manner, until he was 
checked by high reeds that covered an extensive 
plain before him, amidst which the channel of 
the river was lost. 
From what he observed of the country, on 
both these occasions, he was led to infer that 
beyond the limits of his advance the interior 
had a uniform level, and was, for the most part, 
uninhabitable and under water. Its features 
must have been strongly marked to have con- 
firmed such an opinion in the mind of the late 
Surveyor-General. It stands recorded on the 
pages of his journal, that he travelled over a 
country of many miles in extent, after clearing 
the mountains, which so far from presenting any 
rise of ground to the eye, bore unequivocal 
marks of frequent and extensive inundation. 
He traced two rivers of considerable size, and 
found that, at a great distance from each other, 
they apparently terminated in marshes, and that 
the country beyond them was low and unbroken. 
In his progress eastward, he crossed a third 
stream (the Castlereagh), about forty-five miles 
