On his return he informed me that he descended from the plain into a hollow, the bottom of which was covered with small shells and bulrushes.

He observed a new species of eucalypti, on the trunks of which the water-mark was three feet high.

After crossing this hollow, which was about a quarter of a mile in breadth, he gained an open forest of box, having good grass under it; and, judging from the appearance of the country that no other channel could exist beyond him, and that he had ascertained sufficient for the object I had in view, he turned back to the plain.

We stopped for the night under a wood of box, where the grass, which had been burnt down, was then springing up most beautifully green, and was relished exceedingly by the animals.
It was in consequence of our not having crossed any channel, while penetrating through the reeds, that could by any possible exaggeration have been laid down as the bed of the river, that I detached Mr.Hume; and the account he brought me at once confirmed my opinion in regard to the Macquarie, and I thenceforth gave up every hope of ever seeing it in its characteristic shape again.
Independently however of all circumstantial evidence, it was clear that the river had not re-formed at a distance of twenty-five miles to the north of us, since Mr.Hume had gone to the westward of that point, at about the same distance on his late journey, without having observed the least appearance of reeds or of a river.

He had, indeed, noticed a hollow, which occasionally contained water, but he saw nothing like the bed of a permanent stream.