icipated that the next stage would bring us again to large
swamps. The bed of the creek on which we encamped was composed of
granitic rock.

CHAPTER XV

JOY AT MEETING NATIVES SPEAKING SOME ENGLISH--THEY ARE VERY
FRIENDLY--ALLAMURR--DISCERNMENT OF NATIVE SINCERITY--EAST ALLIGATOR
RIVER--CLOUDS OF DUST MISTAKEN FOR SMOKE--IMPATIENCE TO REACH THE END OF
THE JOURNEY--NATIVES STILL MORE INTELLIGENT--NYUALL--BUFFALOES; SOURCE
FROM WHICH THEY SPRUNG--NATIVE GUIDES ENGAGED; BUT THEY DESERT US--MOUNT
MORRIS BAY--RAFFLES BAY--LEAVE THE PACKHORSE AND BULLOCK BEHIND--BILL
WHITE--ARRIVE AT PORT ESSINGTON--VOYAGE TO SYDNEY.

Dec. 1.--We travelled about eleven or twelve miles to the northward, for
the greater part through forest land, large tracts of which were occupied
solely by Livistona. A species of Acacia and stringy-bark saplings formed
a thick underwood. The open lawns were adorned by various plants, amongst
which we noticed a species of Drosera, with white and red blossoms? a
Mitrasacme; a narrow-leaved Ruellia, the white primrose, the red
prostrate malvaceous plant, a low shrubby Pleurandra, and an orchideous
plant--one of the few representatives of this family in the Australian
tropics; the most interesting, however, was a prostrate Grevillea, with
oblong smooth leaves, and with thyrsi of fine scarlet flowers; which I
consider to be Grevillea Goodii, R. Br.

We crossed two small creeks, and, at the end of three miles, we came to a
Pandanus brook, the murmuring of whose waters over a rocky pebbly bed was
heard by us at a considerable distance. A broad foot-path of the natives
led along its banks, probably to large lagoons, of which it might be the
outlet. The country became flatter, more densely wooded, and gently
sloping to the northward, when we entered a tea-tree hollow, through
which the mirage indicated the presence of an immense plain, which we all
mistook for the Ocean. We crossed over it to a belt of trees, which I
thought to be its northern boundary. The part of the plain next to the
forest-land was composed of a loose black soil, with excellent grass;
farther on it was a cold clay, either covered with a stiff, dry grass,
apparently laid down by the rush of water, or forming flats bare of
vegetation, which seemed to have been occasionally washed by the tide.
Finding that the belt of trees was a thicket of mangroves along a
salt-water creek, I returned to some shallow lagoons near the forest, the
wate