84 
distressed for water. 
until he came to the pond near which we had so provi- 
dentially encamped. On the following morning, we held a 
westerly course over an open country for about eight miles 
and a half. The prevailing timber appeared to be a species 
of eucalypti, with rough bark, of small size, and evidently 
languishing from the want of moisture. The soil over which 
we travelled was far from bad, but there was a total absence 
of water upon it. At 6 p. m. Oxley’s Table Land was dis- 
tant from us about fifteen miles, bearing S. 20 E. by compass. 
We had not touched upon the creek from the time we left 
it in the morning, having wandered from it in a northerly 
direction, along a native path that we intersected, and 
that seemed to have been recently trodden, since footsteps 
were fresh upon it. At sunset, we crossed a broad dry creek 
that puzzled us extremely, and were shortly afterwards 
obliged to stop for the night upon a plain beyond it. We 
had, during the afternoon, bent down to the S. W. in hopes 
that we should again have struck upon New Year’s Creek j 
and, under an impression that we could not be far from it, 
Mr.' Hume and I walked across the plain, to ascertain if it 
was sufficiently near to be of any service to us. We came 
upon a creek, but could not decide whether it was the one 
for which we had been searching, or another. 
Its bed was so perfectly even that it was impossible to 
say to what point it flowed, more especially as all remains of 
debris had mouldered away. It was, however, extremely 
broad, and evidently, at times, held a furious torrent. In 
the centre of it, at one of the angles, we discovered a pole 
