138 Kennedy's expedition. 



June IQth. — Mr. Kennedy returned to the camp 

 this evening- J he still found the swamps were 

 impassable, the water and mud lying- on them in 

 many parts from three to four feet deep ; there were 

 patches of dry land here and there covered with 

 good but coarse grass. 



We saw here large 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 lltJi. — 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 eighteen or twenty huts of an 

 oval form, about seven feet long, and four feet 

 high ; and at the southern end of the camp, was one 

 large hut eighteen feet long, seven feet wide, and 

 fourteen feet high. All of them were neatly and 

 strongly built with small saplings, stuck in the 

 ground, arched over, and tied together at the top 

 with small shoots of the climbing palm which I 

 have already described. They were covered with 

 the bark of the large Melaleucas which grow in the 

 swamps, fastened to the saplings with palm shoots. 

 A small opening is left at one end, from the ground 



