me such information of the nature of the country below him, as he could
furnish from personal knowledge or from the accounts of the natives.

LOW STATE OF THE MACQUARIE RIVER.

Mr. Maxwell pointed out to me the spot on which Mr. Oxley's boats had been
built, close upon the bank of the Macquarie; and I could not but reflect
with some degree of apprehension on the singularly diminished state of the
river from what it must then have been to allow a boat to pass down it.
Instead of a broad stream and a rapid current, the stream was confined to
a narrow space in the centre of the channel, and it ran so feebly amidst
frequent shallows that it was often scarcely perceptible. The Bell, also,
which Mr. Oxley describes as dashing and rippling along its pebbly bed,
had ceased to flow, and consisted merely of a chain of ponds.

On the 3rd of Dec, the stockman from below arrived; but the only
information we gathered from him was the existence of a lake to the left
of the river, about three days' journey below the run of his herds, on the
banks of which he assured us, the native companions, a species of stork,
stood in rows like companies of soldiers.

He brought up a nest of small paroquets of the most beautiful plumage, as
a present to Mr. Maxwell, and affirmed that they were common about his
part of the river. The peculiarity of the seasons had also brought a
parrot into the valley which had never before visited it. This delicate
bird was noticed by Captain Cook upon the coast, and is called
PSITTACUS NOVAE HOLLANDIAE, or New Holland Parrot, by Mr. Brown. It had
not, however, been subsequently seen until the summer of 1828, when it
made its appearance at Wellington Valley in considerable numbers, together
with a species of merops or mountain bee-eater.