169 
Interior of New South Wales. 
Bokhara, the Ballandoola, and the Biree; the latter three, I 
believe, again unite, and fall into the Darling forty or fifty miles 
above Fort Bourke. The Narrati seems a wonderful provision of 
nature for the supply and retention of water in a dry and parched 
country. The division of the main river into others already 
mentioned is no less so—irrigating thus from one principal 
channel extensive regions of rich earth beyond the Darling; 
while the surplus, or overflow, instead of passing, as in common 
cases, to the sea, is received in the deep channel of the Narran, 
and thereby conducted to that extensive reservoir where, on rock 
or stiff clay, and under ever-verdant polygonum, it furnishes an 
inexhaustible supply for the support of animal life. Nor is this 
beautiful net work of rivers confined to that side of the Darling. 
The marsh of the Macquarie receives only ordinary floods to 
be retained in a somewhat similar manner to those in Narran 
Swamp. The great floods of that river overflow the fern plains 
to the westward above Mount Harris, fill the ponds of Cannonba 
and of Banargill, which then uniting carry a current into the 
Bogan, which river sends a branch called the Barrawarry north¬ 
ward into the country between it and the Darling, flowing parallel 
to the latter river at a distance of about seven miles. Below 
Mount Harris the Macquarie again overflows into Duck Creek 
(the “ Marra’’ of the natives), which may be considered the 
channel, or a channel of that river in high floods. Cannonba 
and Duck Creek on one side seem therefore analogous on a 
smaller scale to the various branches of the Balonne on the other. 
Tracing the Balonne upwards I found the country on its banks 
well covered with good grass; and we encountered only a small 
proportion of scrub. Some of the reaches were so broad, deep, 
and extensive, that I could not suppose this river contained only 
the waters of the Condamine, and I therefore expected to meet 
with some tributary from the north-west. On arriving at a 
natural bridge of rock, in long. 148° 46' 45' E., lat. 28° 2' S., 
I selected a position commanding access to the other Ank, with 
the intention of forming there a depot for the rest and refreshment 
of the bullocks, then unable to go further; while I, with a smaller 
party, examined the country to the north-west. 1 first made a 
