48 JOURNEY TO THE. SHORES 
much assistance from Mr. Thomas Swaine, who 
with great kindness waited for us with the boat 
under his charge at such places as he appre- 
hended would be most difficult to pass. We en- 
camped at sunset, completely jaded with toil. 
Our distance made good this day was twelve 
miles and a quarter. 
The labours of the 16th commenced at half 
past five, and for some time the difficulty of 
getting the boats over the rapids was equal to 
what we experienced yesterday. Having passed 
a small brook, however, termed Halfway Creek, 
the river became deeper, and although rapid, it 
was smooth enough to be named by our Orkney 
boatmen Siill-water. We were further relieved 
by the Company’s clerks consenting to take a 
few boxes of our stores into their boats. Still we 
made only eleven miles in the course of the day. 
The banks of Hill River are higher, and have 
a more broken outline, than those of Steel of 
Hayes’ Rivers. The cliffs of alluvial clay rose 
im some places to the height of eighty or ninety 
. feet above the stream, and were surmounted by 
hills about two hundred feet high, but the thick- 
Ress of the wood prevented us from seeing far 
beyond the mere banks of the river. 
September 17.—About half past five in the 
Romine Wwe commenced tracking, and soon came 
