I proposed, therefore, to cross the river, and to make an excursion into the interior, during the probable time of Mr.Hume's absence; since if, as I imagined, the Macquarie had taken a permanent northerly course, I should not have an opportunity of examining the distant western country.

Mr.Hume's experience rendered it unnecessary for me to give him other than general directions.
A PLAIN ON FIRE.
On the last day of the year we left the camp, each accompanied by two men.
I had the evening previously ordered the horses I intended taking with me across the channel, and at an early hour of the morning I followed them.
Getting on a plain, immediately after I had disengaged myself from the reeds on the opposite side of the river, which was full of holes and exceedingly treacherous for the animals, I pushed on for a part of the wood Mr.Hume had endeavoured to gain from the boat, with the intention of keeping near the marsh.

On entering it, I found myself in a thick brush of eucalypti, casuarinae and minor trees; the soil under them being mixed with sand.

I kept a N.N.W.course through it, and at the distance of three miles from its commencement, ascended a tree, to ascertain if I was near the marshes; when I found that I was fast receding from them.

I concluded, therefore, that my conjecture as to their direction was right, and altered my course to N.W., a direction in which I had observed a dense smoke arising, which I supposed had been made by some natives near water.
At the termination of the brush I crossed a barren sandy plain, and from it saw the smoke ascending at a few miles' distance from me.