263 



such ground without shoes, I returned for them, and was 

 thus thrown considerably in the rear. I hallooed continually 

 to Capt. Logan, who always answered me while within hear- 

 ing, but the number of echoes, at least five, which repeated 

 backwards and forwards the different sounds, had such an 

 effect in confusing me, that I knew not whence the voice 

 came; and it would have required the speed and agility of 

 an antelope to overtake him. I continued scrambling on- 

 wards till half-past eleven, when I perceived Capt. Logan 

 near the summit, and then relinquished all hope of joining 

 him ; I also struck into a brushwood of Eucalyptus inimosoides, 

 Tasmannia insipida, Xanthorrhcea hastilis, Epacris grandiflora, 

 and several Port-Jackson Ferns, among which I observed 

 Gleichenia angustifolia. 



From the dampness of the earth, I hoped to obtain here 

 some water wherewith to allay my parching thirst, but I was 

 disappointed. Through this brush I at length penetrated, 

 and advanced about 500 feet higher still, when my strength 

 became so much exhausted, and the day so far advanced, 

 that after waiting an hour in expectation of seeing Capt. 

 Logan, I commenced my descent, the summit of the moun- 

 tain rearing its gigantic head full 800 feet above me. 



The descent proved a more difficult task than the climb- 

 ing had been, from the narrowness of the ridges, in many 

 places not exceeding six feet, with huge precipices on each 

 side, and the danger of slipping between these masses when 

 leaping from one to another, many of them being as slippery 

 as a piece of ice, in which case an instantaneous death must 

 have been my portion. After prodigious exertions, I suc- 

 ceeded in regaining the point where I had left my collecting- 

 bags and shoes, and now I was still more puzzled how to 

 descend thus encumbered ; but, mustering all my courage and 

 caution, I began sliding gently from bush to bush, often 

 narrowly escaping being dashed to atoms, and by carefully 

 lowering my boxes and shoes before me from one point to 

 another, I at length got within sight of Mr. Cunningham and 

 the rest of the party, by whose assistance I was lowered down 

 the rocks, having almost all my clothes torn off my back. 



