202 
appendix. NO, V. 
arrival at Mount Harris. I should not have directed the 
messenger to return so soon, had I not subsequently ad- 
vanced to IHount Foster, and surveyed the country from 
that eminence. I could distinctly see Arbuthnot’s Range 
to the eastward. From that point the horizon appeared to 
me unbroken, but the country to the northward and west- 
ward seemed to favour an attempt to penetrate into it. I 
did not observe any sheet of water, and the course of the 
Macquarie was lost in the woodlands below. 
Mr. Hume ascended the hill at sun-rise, and thought he 
could see mountains to the north east, but at such a dis- 
tance as to make it quite a matter of uncertainty. Agree- 
ing, however, in the prudence of an immediate descent, we 
left our encampment on the morning of the 23 d, under 
Mount Foster, to which we had removed from Mount Har- 
ris, and pursued a north-north-west course to the spot on 
which we rest at present. We passed some fine meadow 
land near the river, and were obliged to keep wide of it in 
consequence of fissures in the ground. Traversing a large 
and blasted plain, on which the sun’s rays fell with intense 
heat, and on which there was but little vegetation, we 
skirted the first great morass, and made the river immedi- 
ately beyond it. It is of very considerable extent, the chan- 
nel of the river passing through it. We are encompassed 
on every side by high reeds, which exist in the woods as 
well as in the plains. Mr. Hume and myself rode forward 
yesterday through the second morass, and made the river 
on slightly elevated ground, at a distance of about five 
miles ; the country beyond appeared to favour our object, 
and we, to-morrow, proceed with the party to the north- 
west. The river seems to bend to the north-east j but in 
