GREAT HEAT. 
23 
a very considerable creek that receives a part of the super- 
fluous waters of the Macquarie, and distributes them, most 
probably, over the level country to the north. It was much 
wider than the river, being from fifty to sixty yards across, 
and is resorted to by the natives, who procure muscles from 
its bed in great abundance. We were obliged to traverse 
its eastern bank to its junction with the river, at which it 
fortunately happened to be dry. W^e had, however, to cut 
roads down both its banks before we could cross it; and, 
consequently, made but a short day’s journey. The soil 
passed over was inferior to the generality of soil near the 
river, but we encamped on a tongue of land on which both 
the flooded-guin and the grass were of luxuriant height. 
We found a quantity of a substance like pipe-clay in the 
bed of the river, similar to that mentioned by Mr. Oxley. 
The heat, which had been exeessive at Wellins'ton Val- 
ley, increased upon us as wc advanced into the interior. 
The thermometer was seldom under 1 14° at noon, and 
rose still higher at 2 p.m. We had no dews at night, and 
consequently the range of the instrument was trifling in the 
twenty-four hours. The country looked bare and scorched, 
and the plains over which we journeyed had large fissures 
traversing them, so that the earth may literally be said to 
have gasped for moisture. The country, which above the 
cataract had borne the character of open forest, excepting 
on the immediate banks of the river, where its undulations 
and openness gave it a park-like appearance, or where the 
barren stony ridges prevailed below that poiirt, generally ex- 
