140 EXCURSION INTO THE INTERIOR. 



noon started to resume our examination of Fitz-Roy 

 River. Captain Wickham and Lieutenant Eden in 

 the gig, and myself, accompanied by Mr. Tarrant, 

 in one of the whale boats ; we reached the mangrove 

 isles at sunset, and spent the night between them and 

 the eastern shore. On the 8th the tide suited us 

 but badly, and we were only able to proceed about 

 four miles beyond Escape Point, where we secured 

 the boats in a creek out of the influence of the tide. 

 We found much less water off Escape Point than 

 on our former visit. In the evening we made an 

 excursion into the interior. It was one vast un- 

 broken level, covered with a strong and wiry grass, 

 intersected with numerous water-courses, which the 

 tide filled at high water, there were also indica- 

 tions of more important, but less regular, visits 

 from the sea. Here and there a solitary tree 

 assisted us in estimating the distance we had 

 walked. We saw two emus in this plain, which 

 appeared also a favourite resort of quail and a 

 bronze- winged pigeon. We could not get within 

 shot of the wary emus, but the quail and pigeons 

 afforded us good sport, notwithstanding the cease- 

 less attacks of the musquitoes, which swarmed in 

 the long grass, and defied anything less impene- 

 trable than Mackintosh leggings, incumbrances 

 not desirable for a pedestrian with the thermometer 

 at 87% particularly when worn over a pair of Flush- 

 ing trowsers. Thus defended, I could, in some 

 degree, defy these tormenting assailants, and at 



