17
of considerable widths extending E. and W. as far as the eye can survey, bounded on the south and north by a succession of undulating and moderately elevated hills thinly but sufficiently ornamented with trees of gigantic form, and you may have some conception of the beauty of the spot, where, near a pool of water, we bivouaced on Saturday evening. Mokare having shot a kangaroo of a large size, all the party were in high glee preparing the feast. We were now nearly seventy miles in a N.W. direction from the settlement, in a country well adapted either for pastoral or agricultural purposes, and I regretted exceedingly that want of time compelled me to make it the "ne plus ultra" of my excursion northerly, where I am convinced the same kind of land exists to a great extent.
Sunday at daylight, we proceeded west. About nine o'clock we arrived at a shallow lagoon, the water of which tasted rather brackish to us who were become fastidious. Perceiving water a short distance directly north from this, we proceeded thither and observed a circular basin of water about half a mile in diameter, literally covered with black swans, ducks, teel, and other aquatic birds. The lake is surrounded by a belt of about fifty yards wide of tall reeds; at the inner margin of this belt the water is upwards of six feet deep. The Hirundo Medicinalis was found in great plenty, an important object to some future Australian Broussars. The birds being disturbed flew to the lagoon to the south of the lake, and being again disturbed, flew directly south, thereby rendering it probable that other collections of water exist in that direction, which may receive, as I imagine, the various streams running N.W.
Leaving this lake, (named Loch Kathrine,) we
