The natives of Mudà assured me there was no water nearer than Nyingan, a large pond which I knew was 22 1/3 miles distant, in a direct line lower down the Bogan. The ponds of Mudà, their great store of water, and known to white men as the largest on the Bogan, were alarmingly low, and it became evident that our progress under such a scarcity of water would be attended with difficulty. These natives gave us also a friendly hint that "gentlemen" should be careful of the spears of the natives of Nyingan, as many natives of Nyingan had been shot lately by white men from Wellington Valley.
Among the woods we observed the white-flowered Teucrium racemosum, the Justicia media, a small herbaceous plant with deep pink flowers; also a Stenochilus and Fusanus (the Quandang), although not in fruit; a new species of Stipa, remarkable for its fine silky ears and coarse rough herbage.[*] This place produced also a fine new species of Chloris in the way of C. truncata, but with upright ears, and hard three-ribbed pales,[**] and we here observed, for the first time, a fine new Eremophila with white flowers, forming a tree fifteen feet high.[***] The beautiful Damasonium ovalifolium, with white flowers red in the centre, still existed in the water.
[* S. scabra (Lindl. MS.), aristis nudis, paleis pubescentibus basi villosis, glumis setaceo-acuminatis glabris, foliis scabropilosis involutis culmis brevioribus, geniculis pubescentibus, ligulâ oblongâ subciliatâ.]
[** C. sclerantha (Lindl. MS.), culmo stricto, foliis planis glabris tactu scabris, spicis 4—7-strictis, spiculis bifloris, flore utroque breviaristato cartilagineo truncato 3-nervi glabro supremo sterili vacuo.]
[*** E. mitchelli (Benth. MS.), glabra viscidula, foliis alternis linearibus planis, corolla alba extus glabra fauce amplo laciniis 4 superioribus subaequalibus infima majore retusa, staminibus inclusis.]
In the evening it was discovered that no one had seen the shepherd and the sheep since the morning, and Piper and Yuranigh went in search. It was night ere they returned with the intelligence that they had found his track ten miles off to the S. W. when darkness prevented them from following it further.
I ascertained, by observations of the stars Aldebaran and Orionis, that out present camp near Bugabadà was in latitude 31° 56', and thus very near the place where Mr. Dixon's journey down the Bogan in 1833 had terminated. Thermometer at noon, 90°; at 9 p.m., 70°; with wet bulb, 63°.
10TH JANUARY.—Early this morning Mr. Kennedy and Piper went to the S. W. in search of the shepherd and sheep, while at the same time I sent William Baldock and Yaranigh back along our track in search of the stray bullocks. Meanwhile I conducted the party along my former track to Mudà, where we met Mr. Kennedy and Piper with the shepherd and sheep, already arrived there. The shepherd stated that the fatigue of having been on watch the previous night had overcome him; that he fell asleep, and that the sheep went astray; that he followed and found them, but lost himself. He had met one or two natives who offered him honey, etc. which he declined.
We encamped beside the old stock-yard and the ruins of a dairy, only visible in the remaining excavation. But a paddock was still in such a state of preservation, that in one day we completed the enclosure. We had passed near Bugabadà similar remains of a cattle station. This position of Mudà was a fine place for such an establishment; a high bank nearly clear of timber, overlooking a noble reach of great capacity, and surrounded by an open forest country, covered with luxuriant grass. The last crop stood up yellow, like a neglected field of oats, in the way of a young crop shooting up amongst it.
11TH JANUARY, 1846.—Sunday. Prayers were read to the men, and the cattle and party rested. The day was cool and cloudy.