34 DOUBTS or THE FURTHER EXTENSION OF THE RIVER. 
line to have been drawn from the camp northerly, Mr. 
Hume must have travelled considerably to the westward 
of it, and as I had run on a N. W. course from the 
marshes, it necessarily followed that our lines of route 
must have intersected each other, or that want of extension 
could alone have prevented them from having done so ; but 
that, under any circumstances, they could not have been very 
far apart. This was too important a point to be left unde- 
cided, as upon it the questio n of the Macquarie’s termination 
seemed to depend. 
Both Mr. Hume and myself were of opinion, that a medium 
course would be the most satisfactory for us to pursue, 
to decide this point ; and it appeared that we could not do 
better than, by availing ourselves of the creek on which we 
were, and skirting the reeds, to take the first opportunity 
of dashing through them in a westerly direction. 
I entertained great doubts as to the longer existence of 
the river, and as I foresaw that, in the event of its having 
terminated we should strike at once into the heart of the 
interior, I became anxious for the arrival of supplies at 
Mount Harris ; and although I could hardly expect that 
they had yet reached it, I determined to proceed thither. 
Mr. Hume was too unwell for me to think of imposing 
additional fatigue upon him ; I left him, therefore, to con- 
duct the party, by easy stages, to the northward, until 
such time as I should overtake them. Even in one day there 
was a visible improvement in the men, and Dawber’s attack 
seemed to be rather the effects of cold than of any thing 
