In the morning, however, instead of running upon our old track, we followed that of Mr.Hume to the junction, giving up our first intention, with a view to ascertain if there existed any water which we could, by an effort, gain, below where Mr.Hume had been.

The channel was very broad, with a considerable fall in its bed, and, in appearance, more resembled the slope of a lawn than the bed of a river.

It had two gum-trees in the centre of its channel, in one of which the floods had left the trunk of a large tree.

We could discover where it narrowed and its banks rose, but, as we intended to make a closer examination before we left the neighbourhood, we continued our journey down the principal channel.

The ground exhibited an abundance of pasture in its immediate neighbourhood, but the distant country was miserably poor and bare.