PARTY OF NATIVES. 263 



at low tide the water was simply brackish. I can 

 only account for this by supposing that there was an 

 imperceptible drainage of fresh water through the 

 banks. 



The highest part of the country we saw was on the 

 south side of one of the reaches, six miles from the 

 mouth ; but even there the utmost elevation was 

 only ten feet. This rise was marked by a growth 

 of tolerable sized eucalypti. Elsewhoi'e the banks 

 were scarcely three feet above high water level, 

 and generally fringed witli mangroves, behind 

 which in many places were extensive clear flats, 

 reaching occasionally the sides of the inlet towards 

 the upper parts, and forming at that time the resort 

 of large flights of the bronze-winged pigeon. 



In many of the reaches we met with flocks of 

 wild ducks, of the white and brown, and also of the 

 whistling kind. The birds we had not before seen 

 were a large dark brown species of rail, so wary 

 that I could never get within shot of it, and a rather 

 small blackbird with a white crest A few of the 

 large species of crane, called the Native Companion, 

 were also seen. The only kind of fish taken was 

 the common catfish. Alligators were very nu- 

 merous for the first fifteen miles as we ascend- 

 ed; and we saw a party of natives, but did not 

 communicate with them. Their astonishment at 

 the appearance of such strange beings as ourselves 

 must have been very great. It could never before 

 have fallen to their lot to behold any of the white 



