was through a rich and fertile country until we reached a deep
stream, thirty or forty yards wide and apparently navigable for large
boats up to this point; it ran away to the westward, but with a current
scarcely perceptible.

DIFFICULT APPROACH TO IT.

It was very difficult to approach this stream on account of the marshy
nature of its banks, which were overgrown with bamboo and, even if we
could have got the ponies to it, it was not fordable here. We therefore
turned up it in an easterly direction to look for a passage over it; and
in so doing were necessarily compelled to cross many smaller streams and
a great deal of swampy ground in which some of the most weakly of the
ponies got bogged and were only extricated with great difficulty. However
annoying this was I could not but smile at the distress of some of the
men, who had contracted a friendship for the animals they had so long
led, when one of their favourites got into a difficulty. The exclamations
of Ruston the old sailor were particularly amusing, as, according to the
position in which the animal got bogged, he used to roar out for someone
"to come and give his pony a heave upon the starboard or larboard
quarters;" and once, when violently alarmed at the danger he imagined his
pet pony to be in, he shouted amain, "By G---, Sir, she'll go down by the
stern." At last however we got clear of the marsh, and reached a rocky
gorge where this stream issued from the hills, and here we stopped for
breakfast

This spot was very picturesque. The river as it issued from the gorge in
the high wooded hills first formed a series of cascades, and then at the
mouth of the gorge expanded into a large pool. It was at this point,
although only a secondary stream in this country, far larger than any of
the rivers of South-Western Australia. At the gorges, where they issue
from the hills, its banks were clothed with the pandanus, lofty gum
trees, and a very luxuriant vegetation. We first sought for a ford up the
river in the direction of the rapids, but our search was fruitless. On
returning to breakfast I found that the men had caught three fish and one
of the long-necked fresh-water turtle which are common over the whole of
this continent. Mr. Lushington had also shot several black cockatoos so
that we were supplied with a meal of meat, a luxury we had not enjoyed
for a long time.

CROSS A LARGE RIVER.

After breakfast Corporal Auger started alone and returned in about an