LOW STATE OF THE MACQUARIE RIVER. 7 
Mr. Maxwell pointed out to me the spot on which Mr. 
Oxley’s boats had been built, close upon the bank of the 
Macquarie ; and I could not but reflect with some degree 
of apprehension on the singularly diminished state of the 
river from what it must then have been to allow a boat to 
pass down it. Instead of a broad stream and a rapid 
current, the stream was confined to a narrow space in the 
centre of the channel, and it ran so feebly amidst frequent 
shallows that it was often scarcely perceptible. The Bell, 
also, which Mr. Oxley describes as dashing and rippling 
along its pebbly bed, had ceased to flow, and consisted 
merely of a chain of ponds. 
On the 3d of Dec. the stockman from below arrived ; 
but the only information we gathered from him was the ex- 
istence of a lake to the left of the river, about three days’ 
journey below the run of his herds, on the banks of which 
he assured us, the native companions, a species of stork, 
stood in rows like companies of soldiers. 
He brought up a nest of small paroquets of the most 
beautiful plumage, as a present to Mr. Maxwell, and 
affirmed that they were common about his part of the 
river. The peculiarity of the seasons had also brought a 
parrot into the valley which had never before visited it. 
This delicate bird was noticed by Captain Cook upon the 
coast, and is called Psittacus Novts Hollandia, or New 
Holland Parrot, by Mr. Brown. It had not, however, been 
subsequently seen until the summer of 1828, when it made 
its appearance at Wellington Valley in considerable num- 
