126 WKETCHETI APPEARANCE OP THE COUNTRY. 
The Castlereagh seemed to have increased in size below 
the creek, but still it had no resemblance to a river. We 
had not proceeded very far down its banks, on the 18th, 
when we crossed a broad footpath leading to it from the 
interior. I turned my horse to the left, and struck upon a 
long sheet of water, from which I startled a number of pe- 
licans. It was evident that the natives had recently been 
in the neighbourhood, but we thought it probable they 
might have been a hunting party, who had returned again 
to the plains. The whole track we passed over during the 
day was miserably poor and bare of vegetation, nor did the 
appearance of the country to the N.E. indicate any im- 
provement. We lost the traces of the natives immediately 
after crossing their path or beat, and again found the bed 
of the river dry, after we had passed the sheet of water to 
which it led. The soil was so rotten and yielding, that the 
team knocked up early ; indeed, it was a matter of surprise 
to me that they should not have failed before. The river 
made somewhat to the westward with little promise of im- 
provement. The wretched appearance of the country as we 
penetrated into it, damped our spirits ; we pressed on, how_ 
ever, with difficulty, over ground that was totally destitute 
of vegetation. Instead of lofty timber and a living stream^ 
we wandered along the banks of an insignificant water- 
course, and under trees of stunted size and scanty foliage. W e 
stopped on the 20th at the angle of a creek, in which there 
was some dry grass, in consequence of the ani malsbeing almost 
in a starving state, but even here they had but little to eaf 
