They had
become exceedingly tractable, and never wandered far from our fires;
Flood, however, watched them so narrowly that they could not have gone
far. Since the three days' rain in July, the sky was but little clouded,
but we now observed, that from whatever quarter the wind blew, a bank of
clouds would rise in the opposite direction--if from the east, in the
west, and vice versa--but these clouds invariably came against the wind,
and must consequently have been moving in an upper current.
On the 20th we commenced our journey early, that is to say, at 6 a.m.;
the sky was clear, the temperature mild, and the wind in the S.E.
quarter. We crossed plains of still greater extent than any we had
hitherto seen; their soil was similar to that on the flats of the
Darling, and vegetation seemed to suffer from their liability to
inundation. The only trees now to be seen were a few box-trees along
their skirts, and on the line of the creeks, which last were a perfectly
new feature in the country, and surprised me greatly. The tract we passed
over on this day was certainly more subject to overflow than usual. Large
flats of polygonum, and plains having rents and fissures in them,
succeeded those I have already described. At ten miles we intersected a
creek of considerable size, but without any water; just below where we
crossed its channel it spreads over a large flat and is lost.
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