ered, but in general the trees
were of a very great size: one particularly took my fancy, having very
large leaves about the colour of those of the horse-chestnut, and which
cast more shade around them than any other which I have seen in
Australia.

In the afternoon, as we were passing through a densely vegetated bottom,
we saw a very large iguana run up a tree. This brute was of a beautiful
green colour and five or six feet long; it sat on the tree, making a
noise somewhat like a snake, and was the largest and ugliest of the
lizard tribe which I have ever seen on land. As we could make no use of
it I thought it would be wanton to kill it; so, after examining it as
well as we could, we moved on, leaving it undisturbed.

The black flies on this day changed their character, and became much
smaller than those I had hitherto seen.

March 8.

We made but little progress today on account of the denseness of the
vegetation, which was so luxuriant that we found great difficulty in
forcing our way through it; in several instances indeed it was wholly
impassable; and, after making an attempt to penetrate through a jungle,
we were obliged to turn about and coast round it. The numerous streams we
met with were also a serious impediment, for many of these were so muddy
and deep that we had great difficulty in finding a place where we could
cross.

SIGNS OF NATIVES.

We halted for breakfast near a stream of this kind, under the shade of a
large group of the pandanus. This was evidently a favourite haunt of the
natives, who had been feeding upon the almonds which this tree contains
in its large complex fruit, and to give a relish to their repast had
mingled with it roasted unios, or fresh-water mussels, which the stream
produced in abundance. The remains of some old spears were also lying
about, but the natives themselves were not visible.

Immediately after breakfast I ascended a hill to see if we could in any
way get clear of the deep stream on the banks of which we had
breakfasted. The Glenelg was distant about three miles to the south, and
I found that, in order to disengage ourselves from the waters which
almost encompassed us, we must turn off to the north-west, and thus
almost double back on our former track, as there was no other resource. I
returned at once to the party, and we spent the rest of the day in
crossing two deep streams, and then proceeded about a mile to the
eastward, where we halted for the night on the