w much overgrown and nearly effaced; the marks of the axe were,
however, sufficiently evident for us to follow them for half a mile along
the banks of the river, when we re-embarked, and continued our course
upwards.

(*Footnote. See Illustration: View of the River Hastings at its Junction
with King's River.)

The river now became much narrower, not being more than seventy or eighty
yards wide; four miles higher up we landed and joined Mr. Cunningham, who
was botanizing in the Lady Nelson's boat: this gentleman had overtaken us
about an hour before and passed on to look for a convenient place to
encamp for the night; but for want of a better situation, was obliged to
land in a brush, the banks of which were so thickly lined with trees and
climbing plants that we should have passed it if the station had not been
indicated to us by his boat made fast to the landing place.

Some rain fell during the night, but this inconvenience was trifling
compared to the discordant screams of a bird which had roosted over our
fires, and which the people called the cat-bird. The trichillia and the
ficus, before noticed, are abundant on these banks, and are all
intricately connected with each other by climbing plants which grow to an
incredible size, and hang down in rich clusters from the summit to the
root of the tree, tending considerably to beautify the richness of the
scene.

The woods included every tree of the soil and climate, excepting a white
and straight stemmed eucalyptus, which is common at Hunter's River, and
there called the Flooded Gum; it is used and reckoned valuable for spars,
but the few specimens that I have seen of it have been very brittle and
bad. Some of these trees were observed by us to be from fifty to sixty
feet high, perfectly straight, and without a fork for forty feet.

May 13.

The next morning our boats in company proceeded for two miles farther up;
in this space we crossed four falls, the last of which, running with
great rapidity, occasioned some difficulty and trouble in passing over
it: a little above this fall our exploration terminated, and we stopped
to examine the timber. Several cedar-trees (Cedrelea toona), of large
growth, were observed; one of which, being measured, was found to be ten
feet in diameter at the base.

The upper part of the river is studded with islets covered with the
Casuarina paludosa which is abundant in the swamps and low grounds at
Port Jackson, where the colonists