In the morning, Mr. Hume walked with me to the hill, a distance of about a
mile. It is not high enough to deserve the name of a mountain, although a
beautiful feature in the country, and showing well from any point of view.
We ascended it with an anxiety that may well be imagined, but were wholly
disappointed in our most sanguine expectations. Our chief object, in this
second visit to Oxley's Table Land, had been to examine, more at leisure,
the face of the country around it, and to discover, if possible, some
fixed point on which to move.

If the rivers of the interior had already exhausted themselves, what had
we to expect from a creek whose diminished appearance where we left it
made us apprehend its speedy termination, and whose banks we traversed
under constant apprehension? In any other country I should have followed
such a water course, in hopes of its ultimately leading to some reservoir;
but here I could encourage no such favourable anticipation.

The only new object that struck our sight was a remarkable and distant
hill of conical shape, bearing by compass S. 10 E. To the southward and
westward, in the direction of D'Urban's Group, a dense and apparently low
brush extended; but to the N. and N.W., there was a regular alternation of
wood and plain. I left Mr. Hume upon the hill, that he might the more
readily notice any smoke made by the natives; and returned myself to the
camp about one o'clock, to move the party to the swamp. Mr. Hume's
perseverance was of little avail. The region he had been overlooking was,
to all appearance, uninhabited, nor did a single fire indicate that there
was even a solitary wanderer upon its surface.

EXCURSION TO D'URBAN'S GROUP.