12 
mence the work of devastation, which however is speedily checked by 
the birds of various kinds that follow in their train. Attracted by the 
abundance of food, hawks of three or four species, in flocks of hun- 
dreds, depart from their usual solitary habits, become gregarious and 
busy at the feast, and thousands of Straw-necked Ibises ( Ibis spi- 
nicollis ), and other species of the feathered race, revel in the pro- 
fusion of a welcome banquet. It must not however be imagined 
that this change is effected without its attendant horrors ; the heavy 
rains often filling the riverbeds so suddenly, that the onward pouring 
flood carries with it everything that may impede its course ; and woe 
to the unhappy settler whose house or grounds may lie within the 
influence of the overwhelming floods ! A painful instance of the 
desolating effects of this sudden irruption of the waters came under 
my own observation while travelling in the plains bordering the 
Lower Namoi in New South Wales. On pulling up my horse at 
one of the huts erected by the stock=keepers charged with the flocks 
and herds depastured in this vast grazing-ground, I found it occu- 
pied by Lieut. Lowe and his nephew, who had gone thither for the 
purpose of being present at the shearing of the flocks belonging to 
the former gentleman. Although strangers, their reception of me 
was warm and hospitable, and I left them with a promise of making 
their abode a resting-place on my return. My second welcome was 
such as friends receive from friends, and rejoicing that I had made 
the acquaintance of persons so worthy and estimable, I left them 
busy in their operations, happy and prosperous. Seven days after 
my departure from their dwelling heavy rains suddenly set in ; the 
mountain-streams swelled into foaming torrents, filling the deep 
gullies; the rivers rose, some to the height of forty feet, bearing all 
before them. The Namoi having widely overflowed its banks, rolled 
along with impetuous fury, sweeping away the huts of the stock- 
keepers in its course, tearing up trees, and hurrying affrighted men 
and flocks to destruction. Before there was time to escape, the hut 
in which Lieut. Lowe and his nephew were sojourning was torn up 
and washed away, and the nephew and two men, overwhelmed by 
the torrent, sank and perished. Lieut. Lowe stripped to swim, and 
getting on the trunk of an uprooted tree, hoped to be carried down 
the eddying flood to some part where he could obtain assistance. 
But he was floated into the midst of a sea of water stretching as 
far as he could discern on everv side around him. Here he 
«/ 
slowly drifted ; the rains had ceased, the thermometer was at 100°, 
a glaring sun and a coppery sky were above him; he looked in vain 
for help, but no prospect of escape animated him, and the’ hot sun 
began its dreadful work. His skin blistered, dried, became parched 
and hard, like the bark of a tree, and life began to ebb. At length 
assistance arrived — it came too late; he was indeed just alive, but 
died almost immediately. He was scorched to death. 
Sir Thomas Mitchell, in his recently published “Journal of an Ex- 
pedition into the interior of Tropical Australia,” has given a most vivid 
picture of the manner in which floods occasioned by distant rains fill 
the river-beds, and which I beg leave to transcribe. Sir Thomas being 
