I trust your excellency will believe, that fully impressed with the
great importance of the question, as to the interior formation of this
great country, I was anxiously solicitous to remove all ground for farther
conjecture, by the most careful observations on the nature of the country;
which though it was to me a proof that the interior was covered with
water, yet I felt it my duty to leave no measure untried which would in
any way tend to a direct elucidation of the fact.

It was physically impracticable to gain the edge of these waters by
making a detour round the flooded portion of the country on the south-west
side of the river, as we proved it to be a barren wet marsh, overrun with
a species of polygonum, and not offering a single dry spot to which our
course might be directed; and that there was no probability of finding
any in that direction, I had a certain knowledge from the observations
made during the former expedition. To circle the flooded country to the
north-east yet remained to be tried; and when on the 7th of July I
returned to the tents, which I found pitched on the high land before
mentioned, and from whence we could see mountains at the distance of
eighty miles to the eastward, the country between being a perfect level,
Mr. Evans was sent forward to explore the country to the north-east, that
being the point on which I purposed to set forward.

On the 18th of July Mr. Evans returned, having been prevented from
continuing on a north-east course beyond two day's journey, by waters
running north-easterly through high reeds, and which were most probably
those of the Macquarie River; as during his absence it had swelled so
considerably as entirely to surround us, coming within a few yards of the
tent. Mr. Evans afterwards proceeded more easterly, and, at a distance of
fifty miles from the Macquarie River, crossed another much wider but not
so deep, running to the north: advancing still more easterly, he went