82 ` JOURNAL OF THE 
ternate rain and sunshine; the former moderate and the 
heat never oppressive. By day and night, but especially 
during the day, a fresh sea-breeze prevailed. 
Friday, August 20.—At break of day, we proceeded up 
the river, and although it rained violently, every one was in 
high spirits at our at last moving onwards, and beginning, 
after so much detention, the Expedition itself. A little 
above the bar, the river,.dividing into creeks and branches, 
is very wide, resembling a lake; but the only branch deep 
enough for the steamers, at present known to unite with the 
upper part, called * Louis Creek," is narrow in proportion, 
at one part only sixty to eighty English yards wide. So 
far, the shore is covered with Mangrove (Rhizophora), 
which, with its rdots descending from the branches, has 
a singular appearance; but this is only the case with old 
trees, for the young Mangroves often form woods of dense 
foliage, now in the full splendour of green leaves—a glorious 
sight! Only in a few places, I saw Ferns spring out of 
the water amongst the Mangroves. A little beyond Louis 
Creek, the character of the vegetation underwent a marked 
change; although the country was still much covered with . 
Mangroves, they receded to the back-ground, and the stream 
itself was lined with young, still bushy, Oil Palms : Pandanus 
Candelabrum showed, not seldom, its grass-like leaves; while, - = 
here and there, other trees mixed with them, until, near 
Sunday Island,* (about thirteen English miles from the sea), 
the Mangroves and Pandanus disappear. Then the shore —— 
was lined with small trees and shrubs, with fresh glossy = 
foliage, backed by the tall and elegant forms of fully grown 
Oil palms, a view which can never tire our sight. These 2d 
Palms are 60-80 feet high. The stems are thickest in the  — 
. middle; but the contraction towards the bottom is hardy —— 
perceptible. - The top is rounded. The leaves are long, their —— 
tips somewhat pendent; the lower leaves. more so, which d 
causes the cylindrical shape. - 7 | 
/ * The influence of the vide extends oniy as far fra “Sa Medis " ui : E. 
(H. D. Trotter) e n qe Maxi Dra 
