any mixture of mould, extends
several hundred yards from the river. The party were now eighteen
miles and an half from Rose-Hill, which bore from them north
28 deg. west.

The current in the river was running down, and they set off at
half past ten o'clock, to follow its windings, as it ran to the
eastward. The person who was charged with counting his paces, and
setting the objects to which they directed their march, had
hitherto gone first; but the long sedge, the dead branches which
had fallen from the trees, the nettles, and a weed resembling ivy
which entangled the feet, made walking on, or near the banks of
the river very fatiguing; he was therefore directed to follow the
party, and to take the bearings of those who went before him from
time to time, still counting his paces, that they might always
know their situation in the woods, and the direction it would be
necessary to take when they returned across the country.

They proceeded in an Indian file, the person who went first,
always falling into the rear whenever he found himself
fatigued.

Several good situations were seen on the opposite side of the
river as our party went along, and the ground appeared to be
good: they also passed some good spots on their side of the
river, and saw several places where the natives had slept on its
banks. Ducks were seen in great numbers, but the party seldom got
a shot.

In the afternoon, a creek obliged them to leave the banks of
the river, and go round its head, as it was too deep to cross:
having rounded the head of this creek, they found themselves on
the borders of a river not more than eighty feet wide; the banks
were low, and covered with a thick brush, which did not make
walking less laborious to those who went first. Their view was
now very contracted, the ground rising on the right so as to
confine the prospect to fifty or one hundred yards; and what they
could see was mostly a poor stony soil. In the afternoon, they
fell in with one of the native's hunting-huts, which Colebe and
Ballederry would have cut to pieces, had not Governor Phillip
prevented them; they said it belonged to their enemies, and they
were much displeased at not being permitted to destroy it.

The natives were known to eat a grub which is found in the
small gum-tree, and when our party came to the creek already
mentioned, a native fled on their approach, leaving his fire, and
some decayed wood he had drawn out of the creek, for the purpo