CHAPTER II.
Prosecution of our course into the interior--Mosquito Brush--Aspect and productions of the country--Hunting party of natives--Courageous conduct of one of them--Mosquitoes--A man missing--Group of hills called New-Year's Range--Journey down New-Year's Creek--Tormenting attack of the kangaroo fly--Dreariness and desolation of the country--Oxley's Table Land--D'Urban's Group--Continue our journey down New-Year's Creek-- Extreme Disappointment on finding it salt--Fall in with a tribe of natives--Our course arrested by the want of fresh water--Extraordinary sound--Retreat towards the Macquarie.
We left our position at the head of the plain early on the 13th of January, and, ere the sun dipped, had entered a very different country from that in which we had been labouring for the last three weeks.

We had, as yet, passed over little other than an alluvial soil, but found that it changed to a red loam in the brushes immediately backing the camp.

An open forest track succeeded this, over which the vegetation had an unusual freshness, indicating that the waters had not long subsided from its surface.

We shortly afterwards crossed a hollow, similar to that Mr.Hume had described, in which bulrushes had taken the place of reeds.
Flooded-gum trees, of large size, were also growing in it, but on either side box alone prevailed, under which the forest grass grew to a considerable height.

We crossed the hollow two or three times, and as often remarked the line of separation between those trees.