The circumference of that horizon was unbroken, save where an isolated hill rose above it, and looked like an island in the ocean.
When I reached the point at which Mr.Oxley had been checked, I found the Macquarie, not "running bank high," as he describes it, but almost dry; and although ten years had passed since his visit to this distant spot, the grass had not yet grown over the foot-path, leading from his camp to the river; nor had a horse-shoe that was found by one of the men lost its polish.

In this locality there are two hills, to which Mr.Oxley gave the names of Mount Harris and Mount Foster, distant from each other about five miles, on a bearing of 45 degrees to the west of south.

Of these two hills Mount Foster is the highest and the nearest, and as the Macquarie runs between them to the westward, it must also be closer than Mount Harris to the marshes.

I therefore naturally looked for any discovery that was to be made from Mount Foster, and I according ascended that hill just as the sun was setting.

I looked in vain however for the region of reeds and of water, which Mr.Oxley had seen to the westward; so different in character were the seasons, and the state of the country at the different periods in which the Surveyor-General and I visited it.
From the highest point I could gain I watched the sun descend; but I looked in vain for the glittering of a sea beneath him, nor did the sky assume that glare from reflected light which would have accompanied his setting behind a mass of waters.