imber that I could only catch
occasional peeps of the surrounding country: nevertheless I obtained, by
moving about among the trees with my pocket sextant, almost all the
angles I wanted; and I thus connected the survey of the region I was
leaving with that I was about to enter. My first view over this eastern
country was extensive, and when I at length descended to a projecting
rock I found the prospect extremely promising, the land being variegated
with open plains and strips of forest, and studded with smooth green
hills of the most beautiful forms. In the extreme distance a range much
resembling that on which I stood declined at its southern extremity in
the same manner as this did, and thus left me a passage precisely in the
most direct line of route homewards.

(*Footnote. Consisting of pink felspar, white quartz and silvery mica.)

ENTER ON A GRANITE COUNTRY.

The carts had still however to cross the range at which we had arrived
and which, as I perceived here, not only extended southward but also
broke into bold ravines on the eastern side, being connected with some
noble hills, or rather mountains, all grassy to their summits, thinly
wooded and consisting wholly of granite. They resembled very much some
hills of the lower Pyrenees in Spain, only that they were more grassy and
less acclivitous, and I named this hill Mount Cole. To the southward the
sea-haze dimmed the horizon: but I perceived the eastern margin of a
large piece of water bearing south-south-east, and which I supposed might
be Cadong. It was sheltered on the south-east by elevated ground
apparently very distant, but no high range appeared between us and that
inlet of the sea. On the contrary the heights extending southward from
this summit, being connected with the highest and most southern hills
visible from it, seemed to be the only high land or separation of the
waters falling north and south. With such a country before us I bade
adieu to swamps and returned well pleased to the camp, being guided to it
only by the gushing torrent, for I had remained on the hill as long as
daylight lasted.

MANY RIVULETS.

September 24.

The morning was rainy and our way having to be traced up the ravines and
round the hills was very tortuous for the first three miles. We then
reached the dividing part of the range and descended immediately after
into valleys of a less intricate character. Having passed over the swampy
bed of a rivulet flowing southward,