Being anxious to procure another guide, the overseer at Wallamoul brought me a native named Mr. Brown, who agreed to accompany our party on condition that he should receive blankets for himself and his gin, and a tomahawk, the latter being a small hatchet, which is so valuable a substitute for their stone hatchet that almost all natives within reach of the colony have them, even where the white man is known as yet only by name--or as the manufacturer of this most important of all implements to the Australian native. EXPLORE THE PEEL. December 13. Mr. Finch having joined us on the previous evening, without procuring the supply of flour that I had expected, I despatched him back this morning to the Hunter's River district, with directions to procure as much flour, tea, and sugar as he could pack on six bullocks, and to follow along my line of marked trees with all possible speed. I furnished him with an official letter to Mr. Dixon, in which I instructed that surveyor to supply him with any article he could possibly spare from his own equipment, without impeding the service on which he was engaged. And now our arrangements being as complete as we could hope to make them, under existing circumstances, we broke up our encampment at eight A.M., and proceeded in the interesting pursuit of the course of the Peel River. CHAPTER 1.2. Enter an unexplored region. Situation of Mr. Oxley's camp on the Peel. Westward course of the river. Kangaroo shot. Calcareous rocks. Acacia pendula first seen. Other trees near the river. Junction of the Peel and Muluerindie. View from Perimbungay. Ford of Wallanburra. Plains of Mulluba. View from Mount Ydire. Hills seen agree with The Bushranger's account. The river Namoi. Stockyard of The Bushranger. Singular fish. View from Tangulda. Cutting through a thick scrub. Want of water. Impeded by a lofty range of mountains. Marks of natives' feet. Maule's river. A grilled snake. View on ascending the range of Nundewar. Native female. Proposed excursion with packhorses. Native guide absconds. The range impassable. Return to Tangulda. Prepare to launch the boats on the Namoi. ENTER AN UNEXPLORED REGION. We advanced with feelings of intense interest into the country before us, and impressed with the responsibility of commencing the first chapter of its history. All was still new and nameless, but by this beginning, we were to open a way for the many other beginnings of civilised man, and thus extend his dominion over some of the last holds of barbarism. SITUATION OF MR. OXLEY'S CAMP ON THE PEEL. About a mile and a half below Wallamoul, we crossed a small open plain, and I was informed that Mr. Oxley encamped on its southern side, and had afterwards forded the Peel at no great distance from the spot. WESTWARD COURSE OF THE RIVER.