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APPENDIX. NO. V. 
smaller channels came, the one from the southern, and the 
other from the western parts of the marsh into it. There 
was an evident declination where they were, and it was at 
their junction the river again rallied and formed. On my 
return to the camp, Mr. Hume and I went down the river, 
but found that about a mile it lost itself, and spread its 
waters over the extensive marsh before it. 
In this extremity, I knew not what movement to make, 
as Mr. Hume had been checked in his progress north. I 
therefore determined to ascertain the nature of the country 
to the eastward and to the westward, that I might move 
accordingly ; I proposed to Mr. Hume, to take a week’s 
provisions, with two attendants, and go to the north-east, 
in order again to turn the marsh, but with the expectation 
that the angle formed by the junction of the Castlereagh 
with the Macquarie would arrest its progress, as the last 
was fast approaching the former. 
I myself determined to cross the river, and to skirt the 
marshes on the left, and in case they turned olF to the north- 
east, as they appeared to do, it was my intention to pursue 
aN.W. course into the interior, to learn the nature of it. 
With these views I left the camp on the 31st of December, 
and did not return until the 5th of January. Having 
found early in my journey, from the change of soil and 
of timber, that I was leaving the neighbourhood of the 
Macquarie, I followed a N. W. course, from a more north- 
ernly one, and struck at once across the country, under an 
impression that Mr. Hume would have made the river 
again long before my return. I found, after travelling be- 
tween twenty and thirty miles, the country began to rise ; 
and at the end of my journey, I made a hill of considerable 
