ss this, for one of them sank and could not be
extricated without considerable delay. While the men were busily employed
there I rode to the head of the swamp which extended about a mile to the
southward. On this swampy plain I at length succeeded in finding, with
Mr. Stapylton's assistance, a line of route likely to bear the carts and
we passed safely in that direction, not one carriage having gone down.
While on this swampy surface we distinctly heard the breakers of the sea
apparently at no great distance to the south-west, and I was convinced
that the head of this swamp was about the highest ground immediately
adjacent to Discovery Bay. On travelling a mile and a half further we
reached a small rivulet, the first we had crossed flowing to the south.
Beyond it the country appeared open and good, consisting of what is
termed forest land with casuarinae and banksia growing upon it.

RECROSS THE RIFLE RANGE.

We had at length reached the highest parts of the range and were about to
descend into the country beyond it. We continued to travel a considerable
distance further than the rivulet flowing to the south. Crossing others
running northward or to the left, and leaving also on the same side a
swamp, we finally came to a higher range clothed with trees of gigantic
size, attesting the strength and depth of the soil, and here enormous old
trunks obstructed our passage, covering the surface so as to form an
impediment almost as great to us as the swampy ground had been; but this
large timber so near the coast was an important feature in that country.
Piper, having climbed to the top of one of these trees, perceived some
fine green hills to the south-east, saying they were very near us and
that the sea was visible beyond them. It was late in the afternoon when I
reluctantly changed my intended route, which had been until then
eastward, to proceed in the direction recommended by Piper, or to the
south-east and so to follow down a valley, instead of my proposed route
which had been along a favourable range.

HEAVY TIMBER THE CHIEF IMPEDIMENT.

I had still less reason to be satisfied with the change when, after
pushing my horse through thick scrubs and bogs until twilight and looking
in vain for a passage for the carts, I encountered at length bushes so
thickly set and bogs so soft that any further progress in that direction
was out of the question; and thus on the evening when I hoped to have
entered a better sort of count