124 
JOURNEY DOWN 
1 expected to have overtaken them, I found they had 
pushed on. 
The Castlereagh, as I rode down it, diminished in size 
considerably, and became quite choaked up with rushes 
and brambles. Rough-gum again made its appearance, 
with swamp-oak and a miserable acacia scrub outside. 
The country on both sides of the river seemed to be an 
interminable flat, and the soil of an inferior description. 
I came up with Mr. Hume about 1 o’clock, and we again 
pushed forward at 3, and halted for the night without 
water, the want of which the cattle did not feel. The 
river held a general westerly course, and the country in its 
neighbourhood became extremely depressed and low. On 
the following day we moved forward a distance of not more 
than nine miles, through a country on which, at first, the 
acacia pendula alone was growing on a light alluvial soil. 
The river had many back drains, by means of which, in 
wot seasons, it inundates the adjacent plains. It w'as evi- 
dent, however, that they had not been flooded for many 
years ; and, notwithstanding that the country was low, the 
line of inundation did not appear to be very extensive, nor 
were there any reeds growing beyond the immediate banks 
of the river. Swamp-oak and rough-gum again prevailed 
near the stream at our halting place, and the improvement 
that had taken place, both in the country and in the 
Castlereagh, had induced us to make so short a journey ; 
for not only was there abundance of the grass for the ani- 
mals, but large ponds of water in the river. Some natives 
