PROCEED UP THE ALBERT. 309 



US back within five hundred yards of where we 

 started from, which was one mile \V. by S. J S. from 

 the morning's observation spot. Brown whistling 

 wood ducks now made their appearance, and being 

 unaccustomed to man and his destructive weapons, 

 allowed us to revel in wild-fowl for some days 

 afterwards. 



The morning sun was hailed with delight, as sit- 

 ting cramped up in a boat, with the unusually low 

 temperature of 53° made us very chilly, and brought 

 flushing jackets and trowsers into great request, 

 whilst in mid-day the light clothing natural to the 

 latitude was sufficient. We found the tides rise here 

 four feet, and both flood and ebb ran from one to two 

 knots. After following a reach, trending S.E. ^ E. 

 a mile, with a string of islets in the upper part, our 

 v/esterly progress became more rapid and direct, 

 and with the exception of one bend to the northward 

 we made three miles in a W. S. W. direction. 



But we were once more doomed to be interrupted 

 by the sudden turning of the river short ofl^ to the 

 northward, when it wound round a point a mile 

 long, and a quarter wide, the extremity of which is 

 low and sandy, a character only this once observed 

 in the Albert; on the opposite side were cliffs 

 thirty feet high. 



Near the sandy point we observed some fires ; and 

 on our return, by crawling up the bank, I got a 

 peep at a small party of natives engaged intently 

 in digging for the esculent called warran. As they 



