(*Footnote. E. marginata, Lindley manuscripts; culmo tereti glabro, foliis glabris, ligula nulla, spicis digitatis strictis, spiculis subsexfloris, palea inferiore carinata mucronata marginata.)
August 24.
Retracing still our former steps, we reached a pond on the Bogan 3 1/2 miles short of our camp of May 12. There I fixed the camp in open ground and near good grass, with the intention of resting for two days; this repose having become absolutely necessary for the purpose of refreshing our exhausted cattle.
MR. LARMER TRACES DUCK CREEK UP TO THE MACQUARIE.
August 25.
Being near the route of Mr. Hume when he proceeded westward from Mount Harris and crossed two creeks, of which the Bogan was one; I was desirous of ascertaining the source of the other, whose channel he had found intermediate between this river and the Macquarie. Being occupied in completing my plans of the Darling preparatory to my immediate return to the colony, I instructed Mr. Larmer to proceed on a survey of that creek by tracing from our next camp (that of May 12) on a bearing of 102 degrees East of North, until he reached it, and then to follow it up. Mr. Larmer took with him five men and a week's provisions, also a copy of our recent survey of the Bogan, with Mr. Oxley's Macquarie; and I instructed him to rejoin the main party at Cudduldury, the camp where I calculated we should arrive about the probable time of his return.
A HOT WIND.
August 26.
The morning was calm but about noon a hot wind set in, blowing very strongly from the north-north-west, the thermometer stood at 86 degrees, but by sunset at 80 degrees. I had been sensible of a parching and unseasonable dryness and warmth in the winds from that quarter throughout the winter, while farther in the interior; and it may be inferred from these hot winds blowing so early in the season that the drought and the absence of any humidity in the climate prevailed to a very great extent over the interior regions. This is what I should expect to find in the central parts of Australia, from the nature of that portion which I had seen and the state of the weather throughout the winter. An almost perpetual sunshine had prevailed, dry cirro-cumulus clouds had arisen indeed sometimes, but no point of the earth's surface was of sufficient height to attract them or to arrest their progress in the sky. There seemed neither on the earth nor in the air sufficient humidity to feed a cloud. Dew was very uncommon, the moisture from the one or two slight showers, which did reach the ground, was measured out in this shape upon the vegetation on the mornings immediately succeeding their fall. The hot wind of the Bogan met with no antidote as in Sydney, where the heat of a similar wind is usually moderated towards evening by a strong south-west breeze. On the Bogan the wind was oppressively hot during the night, and lulled only towards morning.
August 27.