We at length passed into an open space, surrounded on every side by weeds in dense bodies.

The great marsh bore south of us, and was clear and open, but behind us the blue-gum trees formed a thick wood above the weeds.
About two hundred yards from the outskirts of the marsh there was a line of saplings that had perished, and round about them a number of the tern tribe (sea swallow) were flying, one of which Mr.Hume had followed a considerable way into the reeds the evening before, in the hope that it would have led him to water.

The circumstance of their being in such numbers led us to penetrate towards them, when we found a serpentine sheet of water of some length, over which they were playing.

We had scarcely time to examine it before night closed in upon us, and it was after nine when we returned to the tents.
From the general appearance of the country to the northward, and from the circumstance of our having got to the bottom of the great marsh, which but a few days before had threatened to be so formidable, I thought it probable that the reeds would not again prove so extensive as they had been, and I determined, if I could do so, to push through them in a westerly direction from our position.
SECOND GREAT MARSH.
The pits yielded us so abundant a supply during the night, that in the morning we found it unnecessary to take the animals to water at the channel we had succeeded in finding the evening before; but pursuing a westerly course we passed it, and struck deep into the reeds.

At mid-day we were hemmed in by them on every side, and had crossed over numerous channels, by means of which the waters of the marshes are equally and generally distributed over the space subject to their influence.