I had plenty of occupation during my officer’s absence, whilst Morgan was engaged looking over the harness and filling up the water-casks. At four, Mr. Browne returned, having succeeded beyond our most sanguine¹ expectations, not only in finding an uninterrupted descent to the plains, but an abundance of water in the creek² at the gorge³ of the glen; yet he was of opinion that we should not find any water below that point, as the creek there had a broad and even bed of sand and gravel⁴. He said that the aspect of the plains was better than he had expected to find them, and he distinctly saw from the ranges, as he descended⁶, the hills of whose existence we had had some doubt the day before, bearing N.N.W. Thus, then, fortune once more befriended our movements, by enabling us to push on another day in advance, without being dependent on our own resources. Morgan was too glad to empty the casks again, and to lighten the cart-load, with which, on the morning of the 9th, we left the glen, and gradually turned to the westward⁷, until the hill we had walked to on the 7th, and which bore west by north from the place where we had left Morgan with the cart, now bore W.N.W. Pushing up a narrow valley, we found little difficulty in our way, and leaving the above hill somewhat to our right, we gradually descended by a long and leading spur to the Cis-Darling interior.

We could now look back on the ranges from the depressed⁸ region into which we had fallen, nor could the eye follow their outline and glance over the apparently⁹ boundless¹⁰ plain beyond them, without feeling a conviction that they had once looked over the waters of the ocean as they then overlooked a sea of scrub.

As soon as we had got well into the plains, we pursued a course of half a point to the

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