138 Kennedy's expedition. 



June 10th. — Mr. Kennedy returned to the camp 

 this evening- • he still found the swamps were 

 impassable^ the water and mud lying- on them in 

 man}' parts from three to four feet deep j there were 

 patches of dry land here and there covered with 

 g'ood but coarse g'rass. 



AVe saw here larg-e flocks of black and white 

 ducks^ making* a whistling- noise similar to some 

 I have seen near Port Macquarie. Mr. Wall shot 

 three of them^ and they proved very g'ood to eat^ but 

 they were not new, being* Dendrocygna Eytoni. 



June lltli, — We started early this morning- and 

 proceeded along- the beach for three or four miles^ 

 when we came to another river^ similar in its 

 character to the one we crossed on the 8th^ with low 

 sandy banks^ and dry bushy land on each side. 

 We unloaded and hobbled our horses^ and prepared 

 our punt as before. 



Near to this spot we came upon a native encamp- 

 ment^ consisting- of eig'hteen or twenty huts of an 

 oval fornij about seven feet long*, and four feet 

 hig-h ; -and at the southern end of the camp, was one 

 large hut eig-hteen feet long-, seven feet wide, and 

 fourteen feet hig-h. All of them were neatly and 

 strong-ly built with small sapling-s, stuck in the 

 g-round, arched over, and tied tog*ether at the top 

 with small shoots of the climbing- palm which I 

 have already described. They were covered with 

 the bark of the larg-e llelaleucas which g-row in the 

 swamps, fastened to the sa])ling-s with palm shoots. 

 A small opening- is left at one end, fi'om the g-round 



