16 Thirty Tears 



Mr. Thomas Swayne, who with great kindness waited 

 for us with the boat under his charge, at such places 

 as he apprehended would be most difficult to pass. 

 We encamped at sunset, completely jaded with toil. 

 Our distance made good this day was twelve miles 

 and a quarter. 



The labors 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 yester- 

 day. Having passed a small brook, however, termed 

 Half-way Creek, the river became deeper, and although 

 rapid, it was smooth enough to be named by our 

 Orkney boatmen Still-water. We were further re- 

 lieved 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 Kiver are higher, and have a 

 more broken outline, than those of Steel or Haye's 

 Rivers. The cliffs of alluvial clay rose in some places 

 to the height of eighty or ninety feet above the 

 Stream, and were surmounted by hills about two hun- 

 dred feet high, but the thickness of the wood pre- 

 vented us from seeing far beyond the mere banks of 

 the river. 



Si ]>l. 17. — About half-past ilvc in the morning we 

 commenced tracking, and soon came to a ridge ot 

 rock which extended across the stream. From this 



