reek, on a water-hole of which we encamped in lat. 16 degrees 54
minutes 50 seconds, was doubtless one of the heads of the broad
salt-water creek we crossed, and which I called "Turner's Creek," after
Cowper Turner, Esq. of Sydney:

Sept. 3.--We travelled about nine miles west by north, through an open
tea-tree forest skirting the heads of those scrubby creeks which went
down to the salt water, the dark mangrove line of which we had seen
yesterday. But we crossed four good sized dry creeks, lined with drooping
tea-trees and white-gum trees. Their banks and flats were covered with
groves of Pandanus, whose stately crowns were adorned with red-fruited
cones: the seed-vessels contained in their stringy texture a rich mellow
pear-like substance, which however was hot, and made our lips and tongues
very sore. We encamped on some water-holes, with excellent water, in a
fifth creek, which lower down contained some fine reaches of brackish
water covered with wild geese (Anseranas melanoleuca, GOULD.) and black
ducks. As Charley was watching some geese, an emu walked up to him, which
he shot; he succeeded besides in getting two geese, which were in most
excellent condition, and weighed better than five pounds each.

A well beaten foot-path of the natives led up a broad salt-water creek,
to the northward of the creek on which we were encamped, and which joined
it lower down. Charley, when going after the horses, saw a camping place
of the natives with spears and the usual utensils: but the inhabitants
had either not yet returned from their hunting and fishing excursions, or
had left it, frightened by the frequent discharge of our guns.

Sept. 4.--We travelled about eleven miles west by north. The first three
miles and a half led us through scrub; we forded a salt-water creek about
thirty yards broad, and then, for the next four miles, proceeded through
a scrubby country, and came to a second salt-water creek as broad as the
first, but containing only pools of water. The scrub now opened, and the
last four miles lay through a fine box-flat, bounded by long hollows
surrounded with drooping tea-trees and the white water-gum, the bright
foliage of which formed a most agreeable contrast with the dull green of
the scrubs and the box-trees. After crossing a small sandy creek, along
which grew a few Sarcocephalus, we came to a large creek lined with
drooping tea-trees and Sarcocephalus, and encamped on a fine pool of
water, within its d