NAREATIVE OF MR. CARRON. 145 



of Eocking-ham Bay. There was an old camping 

 place with twelve or fourteen old huts near our 

 camp, but it was not visited by the natives during- 

 our stay there. They generally came to look at us 

 every day, but always kept at a distance ; on some 

 days we saw as many as from eig'hty to a hundred. 

 The women and children always kept farther from 

 us than the men ; I think more from fear of our 

 dog's and horses than of om'selves. The weather 

 was cool, with showers occasionally during" the day, 

 and at night steady rain set in. 



June 20th. — The rain continued throug-hout the 

 day. 



June 21st and 22nd. — The rain still continued. 

 Two of our horses were found bogged in a creek 

 near the camp, but were soon released without 

 injury ; they had strayed into the creek to eat the 

 aquatic grass, which is plentiful on almost all the 

 creeks between the swamps and the sea. The soil 

 here was rather stiffer than we had found it before, 

 being a light sandy loam, and in places clayey. 

 There were not so many shells to be seen, and what 

 there were, were principally bivalves. 



Mr. Kennedy returned this evening, and having 

 again found it impossible to cross the swamps, we 

 were obliged to return to the beach, where the travel- 

 ling was far better than among the trees. While 

 travelling- inland a man ^vas always obliged to walk 

 before the carts, to cut down small trees. 



At this time we had only two meals per day j 

 VOL. II. L 



