After an unusually hot night the morning broke amid thunderclouds which threatened, by another shower, to destroy our hopes of advancing this day and the next at least. Nevertheless, we lost no time in yoking the cattle and proceeding: for the heat and drought of the previous day had already formed a crust upon which the animals could travel. Meanwhile the thunder roared, and heavy showers were to be seen falling in two directions. One rain-cloud in the north-east, whence the wind blew strong, nearly overtook us; while another in the south-west exhausted itself on the Nundewar range. But as the wind increased the storm-clouds sank rapidly towards the part of the horizon whence it came, until the beams of the ascending sun at length overwhelmed them with a glorious flood of light, and introduced a day of brilliant sunshine.
EXCURSION NORTHWARD.
We traversed, as rapidly as we could, these precarious plains, keeping the woods which enveloped the Gwydir on our right: and thus, at the end of twelve miles, we arrived on the banks of a lagoon, apparently a continuation of the line of ponds or river, which had proved such a providential relief to us after our severe suffering from want of water under Mount Frazer.
REACH A BROAD SHEET OF WATER.
Here however we found a broad and extensive lagoon nearly level with its banks and covered with ducks. It had the winding character and uniformity of width of a river, but no current. I thought this reach might also contain some surplus water of the Namoi, which could not be far distant for we had now reached those low levels to which we had previously traced the course of that river. We travelled along the bank of this fine piece of water for two miles, and found its breadth to be very uniform. An arm trending northward then lay in our way. The country was full of holes and deep rents or cracks, but the soil was loose, and bare as a new-ploughed field. I therefore withdrew the carts to where we first came on the lagoon; not only for the sake of grass, but that we might continue our route over the firmer ground which appeared to the eastward.
POSITION OF THE PARTY. THE COMMON COURSE OF THE RIVER AND THE SITUATION OF THE RANGE CONSIDERED.
I had now on my map the Nundewar range with the courses of the Namoi on one side, and the Gwydir on the other. I was between these two rivers, and at no great distance from either; Mount Riddell, the nearest point of the range, bore 21 1/2 degrees South of East, being distant 42 miles. The opposite bearing or 20 degrees North of West might therefore be considered to express the common direction of these waters. In a country so liable to inundation as the district between these rivers appeared to be, it was a primary object with us to travel along the highest or driest part, and we could only look for this advantage in the above direction, or parallel to and midway between the rivers. We could in this manner trace out their junction with more certainty, and so terminate thus far the survey of both by the determination of a point so important in geography. The soil of these level open tracts consisted of a rich, dark-coloured clay. The lagoon was marked by a row of stunted trees which grew along its edge on each side, so that the line could be distinguished from a great distance eastward, and appeared to be connected with the ponds of Gorolei.
NUNDEWAR RANGE FROM THE NORTH-WEST, 12TH JANUARY.
Left to right: Mount Albuera, Mount Riddell, Mount Frazer, Courada.