132 
EXAMINATION OF CREEKS 
titute of water, we might return to that we had left. Mr. 
Hume accordingly rode down it for about three miles, with- 
out success ; and on his rejoining the men, we returned with 
them to our last camp, or to within a short distance of it. 
Wishing to examine the creek above our position, I requested 
Mr. Hume to take two men with him, and to trace it down 
in search of water, while I should proceed in the opposite 
direction. I went from the camp at an early hour, and as 
I wandered along the creek, I passed a regular chain of 
ponds. The country on both sides of the creek was evi- 
dently subject to flood, but more extensively to the south 
than to the north. From the creek, I struck away to my 
left, and after penetrating through a belt of swamp-oak and 
minor shrubs, got on a small plain, which I crossed H. E. 
and, to my annoyance, found it covered with rhagodia and 
salsolfe. As I had not started with the intention of sleep- 
ing, I turned to the S. W. a little before sunset, and reached 
the tents betwen ten and eleven. I found Mr. Hume await, 
ing me. He informed me that at about nine miles from 
where we had turned back with the party, he had struck 
upon a junction; and that as the junction was much larger 
than the channel he had been tracing, he thought it better 
to follow it up for a few miles. He found that it narrowed 
in width, and that its banks became steep, with a fine avenue 
of flooded-gum trees overhanging them. At four miles, he 
came upon another junction, and at four miles more, found 
himself opposite to the ground on which we had slept on the 
previous Saturday. From this point he retraced the channel. 
