Having dined, we again pursued our journey, and almost immediately came upon a long narrow ditch, full of water, and lined by bulrushes.

The creek or river had for some time kept the centre of a deep alluvial valley, in which there was plenty of food for the cattle, and which, at this place, was apparently broader than anywhere else.

The situation being favourable, we returned to the camp, and reached it late.
DEPRESSION OF THE MEN.
I do not know whether I was wrong in my conjecture, but I fancied, about this time, that the men generally were desponding.

Whether it was that the constant fatigue entailed on myself and Mr.Hume, and that our constant absence, or the consequent exhaustion it produced, had any effect on their minds, or that they feared the result of our perseverance, is difficult to say; but certainly, they all had a depression of spirits, and looked, I thought, altered in appearance; nor did they evince any satisfaction at our success--at least, not the satisfaction they would have shown at an earlier period of our journey.
Before moving forward, it remained for us to ascertain if the channel from the junction was the Castlereagh, or only a creek.

The intersection of so many channels in this neighbourhood, most of them so much alike, made it essentially necessary that we should satisfy ourselves on this point.
Mr.Hume, therefore, accompanied me, as had at first been intended the morning of our return to the place at which we had slept.