lls of fantastic
shapes, but all smooth and thickly covered with rich verdure. Behind
these were higher hills, all having grass on their sides and trees on
their summits, and extending east and west throughout the landscape as
far as I could see. I hastened to ascertain the course of the river by
riding about two miles along an entirely open grassy ridge, and then
found again the Glenelg, flowing eastward towards an apparently much
lower country. All our difficulties seemed thus already at an end, for we
had here good firm ground, clear of timber, on which we could gallop once
more. The river was making for the most promising bay on the coast (for I
saw that it turned southward some miles below the hill on which I stood)
through a country far surpassing in beauty and richness any part hitherto
discovered. I hastened back to my men in the mud and arrived before
sunset with the good news, having found most of the intervening country
fit for travelling upon. Thus the muddy hill which had before seemed
unsurmountable led to the immediate discovery of the true course of the
river, and prevented me from continuing my route into the great angle of
its course over unfavourable ground instead of thus reaching it so much
sooner by a much less deviation from the course I wished to pursue. I now
hoped to extricate the carts in the morning and henceforward to
accomplish journeys of considerable length.

THE PARTY EXTRICATED WITH DIFFICULTY FROM THE MUD.

August 8.

It was in vain that I reconnoitred the environs of the hill of mud for
some portion of surface harder than the rest; and we could only extricate
ourselves by floundering through it. Patches of clay occurred but they
led only to places where the surface under the pressure of the cattle was
immediately converted into white and liquid mud. It was necessary to take
the loads from the carts and carry them by hand half a mile, and then to
remove the empty vehicles by the same means. After all this had been
accomplished the boat-carriage (a four-wheeled waggon) still remained
immovably fixed up to the axle-tree in mud in a situation where the block
and tackle used in hoisting out the boats could not be applied. Much time
was lost in our attempts to draw it through by joining all the chains we
possessed and applying the united strength of all the bullocks; but even
this was at length accomplished after the sun had set; the wheels, four
inches broad, actually cutting through to