Continue through a level forest country.
Ascend a height near the camp, and obtain a sight of snowy summits to the eastward.
Reach a swampy river.
A man drowned.
Pass through Futter's range.
Impeded by a swamp among reeds.
Junction of the rivers Ovens and King.
Ascend granitic ranges.
Lofty mass named Mount Aberdeen.
Reach the Murray.
The river very difficult of access.
A carriage track discovered.
Passage of the river.
Cattle.
Horses.
Party returning to meet Mr. Stapylton.
A creek terminating in a swamp.
Mount Trafalgar.
Rugged country still before us.
Provisions nearly exhausted.
Cattle tracks found.
At length reach a valley leading in the desired direction.
Cattle seen.
Obliged to kill one of our working bullocks.
By following the valley downwards, we arrive on the Murrumbidgee.
Write my despatch.
Piper meets his friends.
Native names of rivers.
CONTINUE THROUGH A LEVEL FOREST COUNTRY.
October 9.
Having buried on the left bank another letter of instructions for Mr. Stapylton according to certain marks as previously arranged with him, we mounted our boat on the carriage (which had been brought across early in the morning) and continued our journey. I expected to find a ford in this river but, considering the swollen state in which it then was, I instructed Mr. Stapylton to remain encamped on the left bank until the boat should return from the Murray, as beyond that river we were not likely to have further occasion for it. Our way on leaving the Bayunga was rather intricate, being amongst lagoons left by high floods of the river. Some of them were fine sheets of water, apparently much frequented by ducks and other aquatic birds.
LEVEL FOREST COUNTRY.
At exactly 2 1/2 miles from the river we reached the outer bank or berg, and resumed at length the straight course homewards, for I there found a level forest country open before me, through which we travelled about eight miles in a south-east direction. We then encamped near some waterholes which I found on our right, in the surface of a clay soil and close to a plain extending southward. The wood throughout the forest consisted of the box or goborro species of eucalyptus and we crossed, soon after first entering it, a small plain. At 3 1/2 miles from the last camp on this line, the low alluvial bed of the river with a deep lagoon in it as broad as the river itself appeared close to us on the left; and as I had seen some indications of the Bayunga on the other side also, or to our right, it was obvious that we had just met with this river at one of its most western bends, an object I had in view in following down the Deegay from the westward. The forest country traversed by the party this day was in general grassy and good and, as it was open enough to afford a prospect of about a mile around us, we travelled on in a straight line with unwonted ease and facility.
October 10.
We continued our journey homeward through a country of the same character as that seen yesterday, at least for the first five miles, when we came at length to a chain of deep ponds, the second we had encountered that morning. In the bank of this I found a stratum of alluvium; but beyond it the soil was granitic, and banksia was seen there for the first time after crossing the river. At 7 1/4 miles we met with another chain of large ponds, and at 9 miles a running stream flowing to the north-west. After passing over various other chains of ponds we encamped at the end of 14 1/2 miles near the bank of a running stream in which were also some deep pools and which, from some flowers growing there, were named by the men Violet Ponds.
October 11.
Having turned my course a little more towards the east in order to keep the hills in view, chiefly for the more convenient continuance of the survey, we passed through a country abundantly watered at that time, the party having crossed eight running streams besides chains of ponds in travelling only 14 miles. Towards the end of the day's journey we found ourselves once more on undulating ground, and I at length perceived on my right that particular height which, at a distance of 80 miles back, I had selected as a guiding point in the direction which then appeared the most open part of the horizon, this being also in the best line for reaching the Murrumbidgee below Yass. It was the elevated northern extremity of a range connected with others still more lofty which arose to the south-east. We crossed some undulating ground near its base on which grew trees of stringybark, a species of eucalyptus which had not been previously seen in the forests traversed by us in our way from the river. We next entered a valley of a finer description of land than that of the level forest; and we encamped on the bank of a stream which formed deep reedy ponds, having travelled 14 miles.